Urbanautica

INDIGENOUS RESISTANCE, POETRY AND MYSTICAL FATALISM

by Steve Bisson

The concept of "meridione" resonates across many cultures, signifying not only geographical or geopolitical otherness but also difference and marginalization. The word "meridione" itself derives from the Latin meridiem, meaning midday—so named because, for people in the northern hemisphere, the sun at noon is always in the southern sky. This symbolism invites us to reflect on the South not just as a point on a map, but as a broader metaphor for the unknown. In a world increasingly divided by profound inequalities—fracturing cities, nations, and regions—the study and observation of different "southerns" encourage us to shift our attention elsewhere, toward the unknown that resides within us. Through this dialogue with the unfamiliar, we expand our vocabulary of possibilities for being in the world, confronting the "otherness" within ourselves. Lab27 invites you to join us in exploring what "southern" means—not as a distant place, but as a vital element in reshaping our understanding of the world.

The new exhibition, "Tra il bianco e il nero (Within Black and White)", at Lab27 questions the concept of the "southern (meridione)"—not merely as a geographical term but as a mental and political category. Through the works of Pablo Piovano, Lorenzo Zoppolato, and Giorgio Negro, the exhibition takes the viewer on a journey through South America, which even today reluctantly yields to the dogmas of the old continent. Indigenous resistance, dreamlike poetry, and mystical fatalism demand a rewriting of its laws and history more than anywhere else. These are diverse paths in the perception and representation of being in the world: art as pure expression, documentary as an exercise in listening, and activism as militancy against preconceived notions.

© Installation view "Tra il bianco e il nero (Within Black and White)", Lab27, Treviso, Italy. Courtesy of: Noemi Civiero

Pablo Piovano, an Argentine photographer renowned for his documentary exposing pesticide use in the Pampas, brings us to the Mapuche people, the People of the Earth. He does so to reveal the reasons behind their unwavering struggle—against abuse, humiliation, and expropriation, and in defense of their origins, language, medicine, and worldview, which cannot align with the removal of forests and rivers, with assimilation into a suicidal notion of progress, with nature reduced to fuel for industry, with a cosmos desecrated and stripped of mysticism. For over 500 years, the Mapuche have been fighting for their dignity and, in doing so, for an alternative to the Western myopia that has usurped their rights and lands. Before the Americas, before Amerigo Vespucci, forced conversions, ethnic cleansings, dams, and cement habitats, there was Wallmapu and another way of being in the world—ancestral and less destructive.

© Pablo Piovano from "Mapuche, The Return of the Ancient Voices" (2018-2024)

Lorenzo Zoppolato is no stranger to South America, from which he has already drawn panoramas that reveal fictions oscillating between the uncertain grays of Patagonian existence and the vastness of a dream. In his boundless Buenos Aires, the photographer sketches a map of fading faces and poetic bodies that embody many interrupted stories. The viewer follows fragments suspended over the destiny of a city—Borges’ city, which Zoppolato approaches with the same fervor, returning it to us through delicate yet bold clicks. The unresolved mystery of life accompanies Zoppolato’s photographs, and perhaps this is why these images seem familiar. They resonate somewhere deep within us, where we cannot quite put a name—within the river of lives that precede and will follow us. Lives that arrive quietly, like the light of dawn.

© Lorenzo Zoppolato from "Buenos Aires Infinita"

© Lorenzo Zoppolato from "Buenos Aires Infinita"

"Pathos" by Giorgio Negro is a sentimental narrative born from a need for compassion and to soothe the wounds of 20 years spent in humanitarian operations in war zones. These photographs are cultivated among the people on the streets, capturing the beauty of being surprised—by a gesture, by a delicate movement, by the perceptions that guide choices. His South American repertoire stands out, marked by the innocent cruelty of denied dreams and the sensuality betrayed by a dark stage. His visual language, almost animalistic, blends with bare life, dark organic soil, and skies swept by ominous clouds—far less trivial than the present. It’s an angelic and marvelous despair that reeks of humanity, like smoke rising from nothing, lingering in your eyes like the memory of a flame. Of time that burns.

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Mappe d’identità / Identity maps
Lorenzo Zoppolato