Calle Tredici Martiri (Alley of the Thirteen Martyrs) is a fictionalised photographic reinterpretation of Jason Koxvold’s grandfather Aldo Varisco’s campaign of direct action against the Nazi incursion into Italy. The book is comprised of 144 pages of Koxvold’s photographs and 80 pages of Varisco’s memoirs of the resistance, illustrated with archival imagery.
The books’ title refers to the location of the Venetian headquarters of the National Republican Guard at Ca Giustinian, which Varisco’s team destroyed with explosives in 1944, killing 13. The following day, the Germans shot 13 Italian prisoners in retribution for the attack; Varisco and his team were later captured and extensively tortured. After the war, the street alongside Ca Giustinian was renamed “Calle Tredici Martiri”.
Today, the United States is involved in the longest war in the nations history, fought against nebulous and invisible terrorists – with yet no end in sight. This project explores the impossibility of photographic truth in the context of the contemporary nexus of capitalism, fascism and consumerism within which we locate ourselves.
Starting next week the images will be on display at the Corner Shop in Newtown, Sydney, in Australia until the end of the month.
Ca Giustinian is today the site of the offices of the Venice Biennale.
Calle Tredici Martiri
Jason Koxvold & Aldo Varisco
Published by Gnomic Book, 2019
224 pages / 108 photographs
$45.00 / £35.00
