SALVATORE ESPOSITO
Mefite
Mefite is a descent in the valley of Ansanto, Irpinia. Held dear by the poet Virgil, the valley is a stop-off for migratory populations.
The climb into the valley takes its name from the goddess of transition, Mephitis, in whose honor a sanctuary stood in ancient times, the most celebrated of all her Mediterranean shrines. It is a place of transhumance, of ever-shifting and elusive nature waiting to surface. Here nothing is concealed. We behold a continuous process of life and death, and the transformation of forms over time.
These photographs are without narrative emphasis or concession, representing instead transformations suspended between that which they are and that which they will become, between that which is no longer and that which has not yet come to pass.
The interest is the study of forms of the body, of its potential for “redesigning” or “regenerating” itself into a new existence, or, as is the case here, in the fate natural chemistry reserves for life.
BIO
Salvatore Esposito (Naples, 1955) has worked between France and Italy for many years,
collaborating with a number of press agencies. He has taught photography at the Naples Academy of Fine Arts and worked on the University of Naples’s Sociology of Art and Literature programme in the department of social sciences. His research focuses on the margins of transformation and the theme of “border” as anthropological boundaries.
Salvatore has exhibited at the MAV in Herculanium, the Pinacoteca Comunale in Positano, and the Italian Cultural Institutes of Berlin and Hamburg. His published work includes catalogues with the publishers Iemme Edizioni and Paparo Editori.