In the wake of our recent landmark exhibition, THE LIVING ARCHIVES | MEMORIES BEYOND THE ATLANTIC, our curation continues to unfold online, granting you further access to the expansive body of work by critically acclaimed photographer and PhD researcher Nicola Lo Calzo.

Today, we invite you to uncover yet another of Lo Calzo's compelling visual chronicle entitled BINIDITTU | OR THE INVISIBLE MAN.

Binidittu explores the (in)visibility of contemporary African migrants in the Meditteranean through the exceptional, although little known, figure of Saint Benedict the Moor, the son of enslaved Africans, who became the first Modern black saint in history (Sicily 1524-1589). Through this remarkable photographic series, Lo Calzo questions the amnesia of Europe and Italy with respect to the historical presence of Afropeans, of which Saint Benedict the Moor is one of the most highly representative figures. 

Lo Calzo crossed paths with the figure of Benedict in Colombia, precisely in Bogotà where he started his research on the memories of the 'Palenques', the Maroon communities established in the forest, on the fringes of colonial ruling law. At the time, having already initiated his now famed KAM Project a few years before, Lo Calzo was immediately intrigued by a certain San Benito de Palermo, as referred to by settlers in the district of Giròn, and to whom dedicated worshipers still erect altars to this very day. 

What could be the connection between Giròn in Colombia and Palermo in Italy?Determined to resolve this enigma,  Lo Calzo's research lead him to uncover an unprecedented cartography of memory, which includes the surprising circulation of the saint among the black communities from Latin America to Central Africa. By that time, Benedict became a benevolent figure, who guided him on a long journey back to Italy, following a holly trail, and above all, looking not just for the historical figure, but a man of flesh and blood, whose "uncorrupted" body is still preserved and venerated in the city of Palermo and whose intricate and symbolic story, alleviates the notion of borders, as it deeply resonates with both  the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.

The project is structured in two folds. One focuses on the legacy of Saint Benedict the Moor, the Sicilian devotees who worship him and their multiple representations and discourses. The other focuses on the complex experience of the African diaspora living in Sicily. With some exceptions, in which the figure of Benedict, or Binidittu as he is called in Sicily, is occasionally reclaimed as a symbol of the anti-racist struggle, although these two worlds rarely intersect. 

Binidittu emerges as an allegory of our times. An encounter between the Mare Nostrum and the world, between oblivion and memory, between racism made commonplace and our shared humanity, between the Sicilian people’s aspirations and African migrants’ hopes of freedom and dignity as they drift towards the shores of Europe.