AAVV, Giacomo Calò – Il mio sogno, 2021

Il Mio Sogno was born from a collection of hundreds of small yellowed photographs discovered at the flea market of Piazza Marina in Palermo. These are portraits taken from the years after the Second World War in Sicily and then around the world crossing oceans and the years of the Italian economic miracle. They are the autobiography of Giacomo Calò, who from the small fishing village of Arenella (Palermo) embarked as a waiter on cruise ships to exotic and distant destinations. Giacomo obsessively portrays himself, there is always him, not the places he visits, which we discover surprising only in the notes marked behind the prints (Bombay, New Delhi, Cape Town, Hong Kong). It is the primary photographic gesture, that of someone who wants to mark his presence, leave a proof of existence: a pinch to be sure he is not dreaming.