Nomadelfia Dreamin'

Nomadelfia is a catholic community based near Grosseto (Tuscany) founded by Don Zeno Saltini at the beginning of the 900’s.

The founder has been able to give shape to a realized utopia, made of streets, houses, people and stories. The community now counts 270 people from all over Italy, 50 families divided in 11 family groups. Inside Nomadelfia all goods are shared. There is no private property and no money, people only works inside the community and they do not get paid, the community takes care of everyone. Nomadelfia history is a travel into the history of an entire nation, it passes through war, political parties, it has been witness of a century of Italian history. The heart of the community is the cultural center: Enrico is the guardian of this memory, he archives negatives, old newspapers articles, images and letters for decades. Nomadelfia people use the archives to listen to audio files for inspiration, students write the thesis about the community, visitors look for traces of their relatives that lived there. Don Zeno, who died in 1981, understood the healing power that the memory would have once he was gone: to archive the past to give a future, hold together his community. My images try to tell all this, paying attention to the places that the locals live in their daily life. A sort of time topography made of lived space. The characters are just appearances to leave the space to the rooms, the walls decorated with images that tell the passage of men and women, of generations melted and that live together. What would our memory with no one to take care and share it? It is the strength of Nomadelfia keep on narrating to consecrate its identity, the community, its memories to infinite.