The photographer Mattia Lucia de Nittis and the poet Martina Benigni worked together on the “IO SONO” (I AM, in English) visual poetry project, a video in which they attempt to unveil the power of the female body via words and images. In their poetics, in fact, the body is not simply an outer shell, but a home, a human shrine. The non-professional models involved, fearlessly and proudly, posed naked in front of the photographer to liberate their bodies, revealing all the scars, marks, and the tales their bodies tell or keep silent about in a collective journey of self-discovery and healing. Benigni worked on de Nitti’s photographs, letting all the small nuances carefully caught by the photographer inspire her pen, with the desire of re-enacting and enhancing those women's voices. Listening to the poem, performed by the talented dubber Simona Troiano, and watching the whirlwind of images flying by on the screen, along with music, the audience is asked to identify with the women facing them and their human experience. “IO SONO” aims to make people feel uncomfortable and more aware, pointing at “igniting change, one verse at a time”, by de-sexualising the female body and sending a global sisterhood message that, made explicit with words, calls women to love every inch of who they were, are, and will be, while also realizing their ever-changing identities.
“IO SONO” is a celebration of being, as well as a transformation and a re-imagination of one’s own identity in the making through poetry and photography. What is highlighted here is the concept of identity and healing as a personal and collective process, for “I am” means that I can only be myself, if I am you, he, she, it, us, them first; it is an exploration of ourselves and what makes us who we are, including scars, marks, moles, blessed imperfections, memories and dreams.
The project is part of the subtheme Re-imagining identity through poetry, Healing Narratives - Poetry, Mental Health and Collective Trauma.
Author
Martina Benigni
Martina Benigni (Rome, 1996) in February 2023 obtained a Second Level Professional Master’s Degree in Specialized Translation at Sapienza University of Rome, where she is currently a PhD student. She has always engaged in poetry and poetry translation studies. Her research interests focus on contemporary Chinese poetry landscape, with a special attention to women’s poetry. In 2021, the Roman publishing house Ensemble published her first poetry collection, "Coraggiosamente fare le cose per niente". Her poetry explores the human condition through elements of everyday life, in search of what Georges Perec called the “infraordinary”, that is the extraordinary in the ordinary.
Author
Mattia Lucia de Nittis
Mattia Lucia de Nittis (the photographer of the project - San Giovanni Rotondo, 1996) after completing her high school diploma decided to pursue her great passion and graduated in Photography at RUFA (Rome University of Fine Arts). Here, she had the opportunity to deepen her knowledge in the fields of photography and cinema, before specializing in Fashion Photography at IED (Istituto Europeo di Design) in Rome. Together with other artists, she co-founded the collective Ammodo Studio, composed of seven young women photographers, each with a unique style. Her artistic research focuses on portrait photography, people’s faces, and the lines of the female body, which she reinterprets through a deeply personal vision.
