I think of Photography and Art as a question of layers, which can be geometrical, spatial, and also historical or social but always human-related. Delete me is part of this vision, it consists in a photographic analysis on the evanescent anonymity produced by the tourism flow on mediterranean shores. The history of mankind around the mediterranean sea and its relationship with local architecture constitute the nucleus of this project. It is an itinerary in the ancient mediterranean world, a personal investigation which reports on themes of identity and anonymity of immobility and transitoriness. I look for a dialogue between ancient buildings and contemporary tourists. It reflects my research on the “sense of territory” and how photography can contribute in the identity definition process. I push tourists and visitors into the background, asking them to hide their own cameras with, foulards, shirts or maps. As the tourist’s visit is brief, what remains is a subjective identity rather than a simple transition. Delete Me started in 2011 in Arles, on the French mediterranean coast. This ancient city, visited every year by hundreds of thousands of tourists, has been the place where I began concretizing the observations and ideas collected during the last years on the shores of the western mediterranean area (Spain, Morocco, France). The project was continued in Italy and it will be carried to the oriental and southern mediterranean coasts. Delete me is still a work-in-progress.
I am born in Trieste, Italy, in 1981. My work develops in the field of visual arts focusing on photography. My production has been deeply influenced by the consequences of political and historical events happening in Trieste all along the XXth century. The city is actually placed on the Italian border and during the last century has belonged to several states. Due to the changes around my city and the history of my family I became interested in personal identity and the “sense of territory”: these two are the thematics I explore through the photography of different areas.
Elio Germani
