Aniconic Puglia
by Alessandro Cirillo
portfolio shortlisted call 'URBANAUTICA INSTITUTE AWARDS 2022', 2022
Category: Representations of Space, Architecture, and Conflicts
Puglia, where I was born and live, has become one of the most sought-after Italian regions through mass tourism and elite tourism over the last few years. The representation of this territory aims, in most cases, at a promotion for tourism purposes which inexorably generates iconic and stereotyped images which, while showing all the "beauties" of the places, hide other truths and other stories which are part of the same as much as the former even though they do not find any space in the prevailing communication channels. The identity of this region is thus, day after day, reduced to a spectacular form of representation that deliberately omits everything that does not form part of the propaganda program. All of this generates a planned concealment of a much more complex reality than the one proposed to the general public.