Domenico Mangano

Luciano Inga-Pin Contemporary Art, Milan
Through June 30

Mimmo’s life is a claustrophobic one. In his photographs, his nephew Domenico Mangano studiously observes this reality with an unflinching, yet affectionate, eye. In this show, La Storia di Mimmo, a series of photographs reveal fragments of his existence and glimpses of his home, situated in the deepest suburbs of Palermo. Commonplace devotional objects, overly ornate furnishings, lace doilies, mirrors, and heavy curtains enclose the room and securely fix in the environment the presence of this man, an ex-fisherman, whose existence has been a series of regular and repetitive tasks. The images capture his relaxed body, recreate his rituals and the slow rhythm of his days, that were also documented in a video of the same name (1999).

Mimmo becomes the symbol of the man from the South of Italy, marginalized and ill-at-ease, a refugee inside his own home and of his own memory, who escapes from actual existence by constructing a completely personal and private world. The artist is not making a social statement; rather, his attentive and inquisitive gaze transforms the documentary into an exaltation of the quotidian.

By using various techniques - out of focus shots, particular framing, a blue tint to some of the images - Mangano seems to adapt the very shape of Mimmo’s body into something sacred, a Buddha or a prophet, giving a plastic quality to his form that is similar to the devotional statuettes which litter Sicilian households and churches.

The interest in popular religious beliefs also emerged in another one of his photographic cycles, “Voyage extraordinaire de J.” (2000), which described the imaginary journey of Jesus through he streets of Palermo. The sacred idol, always in the close foreground and out of focus, was placed in the city streets and in front of particularly significant places - the entrance to a mosque, a littered beach, a stall selling the local delicacy of bread and spleen, a McDonald’s, a video arcade.

The figure was really just a common statuette available from any religious souvenir shop, but the way it was shot allowed the viewer only to intuit this reality. Rather, the artist focused on the very presence of the form, just as he does with Mimmo’s body: both of them become emblems of a Sicilian reality, which is balanced between superstition and devotion, ancient and modern, physicality and spirituality.




Elena Di Raddo
Translation by Amanda Coulson