Internal courtyard of the Museo Madre in Naples, Italy with art by Mimmo Paladino on the roof
Art is a place to be, a place that tries to reach us, provoke us. It swallows the rules, the clocks, the to and fro, and waits for us to respond.
Much of Naples itself is art – ancient, modern, faded, alive – but it does not have the quiet, the spaces between, that the Madre brings to its displays. This is the luxury of a visit to the Madre, the chance to leave the hectic city and step into its calm.
Mural of San Gennaro near the Duomo in Naples, Italy
A threat has been made to the heart of an old city, to a unique relationship between the people and their saint. The partnership has lasted through centuries of invasion, violence, disease and volcanic turbulence … but now bureaucracy wants its say.
The challenge is to the arrangements in place for the care of the patron saint of Naples, San Gennaro, and his glittering collection of treasure.
Image from a t-shirt design by ‘Officina Flegrea’ – off.flegrea@gmail.com
In the summer of 2014 we arrived in our new home on the outskirts of Naples. We left this autumn. Two years in total, two years in which we were privileged to see places many Neapolitans themselves never get the chance to visit. Some of the sights we saw were outside the city but many were squeezed into its narrow streets.
This post, mainly of photographs, is a glance at the context, at some of the neighbourhoods and corners, that frame a few of those places that were in Naples itself.
The Phraser 