271 DAYS. ROME'S RESISTANCE
by Daniele Molajoli
portfolio winners call 'URBANAUTICA INSTITUTE AWARDS 2020', 2020
Category: Memories and Traditions
The project traces the 271 days of the Nazi occupation of Rome during the Second World War. The images show how the places where the most significant events of those nine months are today are, photographed respecting the date and time in which they took place. The work consists of about 50 large-format photographs, divided into views of the city (from the center to the periphery), photographs of interiors and details of objects that are part of this story. The result is a sort of map of the Roman resistance that, through images links the city of today to that of yesterday, telling a fundamental chapter of Italian history. However, those months' uniqueness lies not only in their historical importance but also in clearly bringing out the emotions of men and women faced with the need to make choices. It is as if Rome in those days had been transformed into a theater, a well-defined space and time, in which the various aspects of the human character are radicalized and highlighted: courage, youth, adventure, suffering, fear, hunger and cold, violence and torture, meanness, a sense of community, sacrifice and altruism, hope, betrayal, love and death.