Attraverso Cittŕ dei Morti. Frammenti visivo-antropologici

Abstract

- Every society expresses the conception it has constructed of existence through its burying places. The necropolis of Al Qarafa in Cairo, inhabited since it was established in the fifth century AD, reveals an intimacy between death and life, as witnessed by the residential buildings and customs. We wanted to follow the traces of these customs because they reflect the use of places, they determine the areas of sociality, they are a measure of the care and wear which inform the act of inhabiting a place and finally because they offer a chance to ask about and listen to the stories of those who live there, of those who cross it and of those who come to visit their dead. Light and shade, water and sand, flows and thresholds, gestures and geometries: these are the four essential keys to interpretation which bring together the fragments of an evocative story that emerged from a visual and anthropological study. If it is true that the City of the Dead is to be demolished, then it is not just the ancient mausolea, the illegal buildings and tombs converted into houses that are at risk, but also and above all the inestimable heritage of knowledge, rituals and daily customs associated with the worship of the dead and the survival of the living.