“You can’t really escape Mafia,” Mimi Mollica informs us bluntly. In Terra Nostra, (a play on the mafia’s self descriptor, ‘Cosa Nostra’ or ‘our thing’) the award-winning Italian photographer has spent seven years exploring the dark heart of his sun-drenched homeland of Sicily, and used his camera to expose “.
. . the unsettling trauma caused by the presence of Cosa Nostra in the territory. ”
Before this project began, Mollica had spent over a decade happily living and working in London. After such an extended time away however, an instinctual urge to reconnect to his roots pulled him back. When he arrived back in his native home, he found that for the worse, nothing had changed since the day he’d left; every single person continued to have their lives unwillingly touched by the actions of the ‘Cosa Nostra’ on a daily basis. “The presence of Mafia in Sicily has meant a collective loss for everyone,” Mollica says.
/Mimi Mollica
He describes the endemic corruption of the system he witnessed, how immigrants working in tourist venues are smuggled as slaves, or how rampant extortion forces businesses to raise their prices, impoverishing families in the process. “Your dignity is annihilated when your government is corrupt and the infrastructures don’t work or when your fundamental human rights are denied by the arrogance of Mafia mentality,” he explains.
A fire was lit inside Mollica’s soul as he resolved to spell out, break down and articulate the challenges Sicilians were facing because of the presence of mafiosos. Armed with not a gun, but a Hasselblad 500CM with film backs full of Kodak Tri-X 400, Mollica shot images of a paradise that gangsters had poisoned.
“I am not discovering anything new, I am not making a scoop,” Mollica says. “I am just reflecting on our challenges looking forward in the hope that Sicilians will eventually take back a land that has been stolen from them with arrogance and violence. ”
/Mimi Mollica
Some of the photographs have signs of criminal activity easy for an outsider to recognise; a bullet-riddled bus stop, or a tough looking youth in an expensive sports car. Others however are more subtle; a ridiculously overpriced market stall, or piles of refuse left growing due to a seemingly ineffective local government.
Mollica explains, “Many of the business premises in the same city do pay extortion money to Cosa Nostra; the lack of efficient public services in the island is due to the manoeuvres Mafia together with corrupted regional governments perpetuated for years. ” Another notable absence in the photos is the lack of any classic Italian art deco architecture. Mollica attributes this to the brutal ‘Sack of Palermo’ where, over decades, hideous poorly constructed apartments were built off the back of ill-gotten contracts while historical buildings were decimated.
/Mimi Mollica
At times the project took an emotional toll. Mollica describes to us a meeting he had with a prosecutor, who fought against the mafia alongside judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, both of whom were murdered by the Mafia in 1992. After some opening talk and photographs with the man, his conversation turned intense.
Mollica recalls: “He shared with me some personal intimate stories that touched me deeply. He reluctantly let some tears fall down on his cheek and I, on my way back home, while driving the car, burst into an angry and desperate cry and I promised myself to go further with my story no matter what. ”
/Mimi Mollica
This is the point of Mollica’s work. At face value the individual photos may expose little but when added together, they display the undeniable symptoms of a diseased structure based on intimidation; where murder, human smuggling, and the exploitation of people are a regular occurrence. All of it hidden in plain sight.
“The man who is approaching you asking for money so he would look after the your car,” says Mollica, “is exactly the one who would harm your car on the first place, if you’d decide not to give him money. ”
We ask Mollica if he’s worried his work may have little to no effect - that the rule of Cosa Nostra for many is just an accepted part of Sicilian life - to which he answers, “To a degree this is been true so far, but Judge Falcone used to say that Mafia is a human phenomenon and as such is destined to have a beginning and an end. ”
/Mimi Mollica
A successful Kickstarter for a Terra Nostra photo book has almost finished its run. With strengthened resolve Mollica hopes he can inform and rally others with the truth that the mafia isn’t a boogeyman consigned to Hollywood, and that the people of Sicily face a unceasing blight with immense courage.
Mollica says ”I feel we need to put a voice out and be confronted by the reality, only by doing so we can hope for real change. ”
You can see more of Mimi Mollica's work on his website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. If you are interested in Terra Nostra you can find out about the Kickstarter here.
. digitalrev.com2016-10-28 03:00