FRAMMENTI DI ALTRA QUOTIDIANITÀ

fragments of other ordinaries [l.t.]

A garbage dump in Maputo, Mozambique. An almost metaphysical scenario, a true opposite of our aseptically modern world. With some of the young people who survive off what they manage to recuperate from the garbage – new and oblivious ecological operators within a micro-economy that throws nothing away and recycles everything – a group of volunteers from an Italian ONLUS started up a laboratory at Mundzuku Ka Yina of photos, videos and digital elaborations of images. The students are able to talk about their work and their daily life without the pity with which we are used to regarding this type of reality, thus shattering the taboos of the politically correct thanks to the sincere and authentic vision of the authors. The slow tempo and the silences are broken by sudden accelerations and unexpected changes of rhythm and light, creating a direct and unmediated testimony of a daily life that is far from ours, in which, amongst fights and violence, a desire for conviviality emerges which contrasts with the quality of the food itself.

A Mundzuku Ka Yina - Laboratory of photographs, videos and digital elaboration of images

A Mundzuku Ka Yina, which in the shangan language means “our tomorrow,” is the name the students have chosen for the laboratory which, since June 2008,  has been conducted in the Bairro di Hulene in Maputo, where the garbage dump is located. The project is one of the many participating in the project “Mamma discarica,” which is promoted by the ONLUS Basilicata/Mozambico in Matera and whose goal is to offer an alternative to the thousands of people who live near that garbage dump and often support themselves by gathering food and various materials there. In particular, the students of the laboratory are young people who survive thanks to what they manage to scavenge every morning and evening at the dump. The laboratory has taught them some basic notions of photography. Five of them expressed a desire to learn how to use a computer, thus gaining knowledge that will help them find a job and abandon the garbage dump one day.

regia/directors

aa. vv.

produzione/production

Associazione Basilicata/Mozambico Onlus «Padre Prosperino Gallipoli»