Shadows
Shadows of war and despair. Shadows, just like a hundred years ago
"Evacuated, rerouted, inspected, sent to barracks, as if they didn’t have their own will, as if they had no rights." As if they were "objects to administer." Alcide De Gasperi said so on 12 July 1917: he was explaining before the Parliament in Vienna the plight of 70,000 refugees of Trentino, who had been sent away from their houses after that Italy went to war in May 1915.
Other 30,000 were scattered throughout the country. One hundred thousand. A third of the population living in Trentino at the time.
A century has gone by, but the situation described by Degasperi is not very different today: hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan are like an unarmed army. Helpless and desperate, they’re knocking at Europe’s door.
In this exhibition, visitors can see recent photos taken nowadays by George Salomon and those taken by our ancestors a century ago.
In fact, a hundred years ago our grandparents were likely to walk along with those shadows.
Today, such shadows accompany men and women looking for a place where to live.
Franco Filippini
