In the heart of Catania, the second most populated city in Sicily, raises the San Berillo district.
Once one of the biggest open-brothels in Europe, San Berillo became the theatre for a gigantic requalification intervention in 1958 which led to the mass movement of approximately 30.000 people towards a disconnected suburb in the west-end of the city.
Large part of the district has been teared-down to rubbles, only a small part was left to its original status, with most of its buildings abandoned and left falling in decay. The modernization process characterizing the rampant growing economy of the 60’s, generated the void in which migrants, prostitutes and people from the poorer classes came back seeking for affordable rents or abusive housing, paradoxically re-empowering a social phenomenon that was meant to be annihilated by the requalification.
Today the district is inhabited by Africans, Northern-Africans and Asians striving through everyday life by any mean in both legal and illegal businesses, including prostitution, exercised by women, gays and transgender from Sicily, Northern-Italy and South-America.
This project investigates such phenomenon under the perspective of the entropy effect of a capitalistic society.
The heating temperature created by the energy dispersed in years of complex urban speculation, profit and fierce human exploitation has generated a modern demography, a “primordial soup” which will potentially be the core of the crossbred future generations.
This work, ultimately aims to shift the gaze on the biblical exodus described as "Refugee Crisis" towards an idea of a “post-refugee crisis”. The birth of a new world ruled under the acceptance of the foreigner as a human and the liberation from the colonial-mentality, opening-up to mixtures, meltin’pot and foreign cultures.
Author biography
Glauco Canalis is an Italian documentary photographer based in Milan (IT)
Born and raised in a small town in the heart of rural Sicily, he forged his identity and visual aesthetic in the heart of Mediterranean culture.
His work examines the notions of landscape and identity keeping the study of youth as a central theme.
After attending the Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, he later moved to the UK to complete a Masters Degree in Photography at Plymouth University under the guidance of Jem Southam and David Chandler.
Following an internship at MACK Books under the tutelage of Michael Mack in 2016, Glauco then committed to developing his artistic practice, receiving industry recognition, nominations, shortlists and prizes for awards including the BarTur Photobook Award, Magnum Graduate Photography Award, the Innovate Grant in 2023., the Discovery Awards at Encontros Da Imagem in Portugal and the Festival Circulation(s) in Paris in 2024.
His latest film "Sciara" received a shortlist at the 2022 1.4 Film awards in London, UK.
Glauco has also undertaken international artist residencies at DUE SOUTH Artist Residency between Sicily and Philadelphia, and XARKIS Residency in Cyprus, 2022.
Glauco has collaborated with clients and publications including Time, Le Monde, Esquire, i-D Magazine, L'OFFICIEL, VOGUE amongst the others.