JULIE SPENCER, CITY OF STONES (DOCO 2021)

This series of 5 images tells of a city in southern Italy called Matera, a city like nowhere else on earth. Matera was inaugurated in 2019 as the European Capital of Culture - which meant a chance to receive economic and social benefits which were invested in urban projects and to host the tourists expected to visit and provide international visibility to the territory. The slogan of the city was “Matera 2019 Open Future”. This was the chance for Matera to finally put behind a centuries-long reputation of being an example of poverty and degradation. When the UNESCO included the Citta dei Sassi, literally the City of Stones, in it’s heritage , it gave a new image to a once example of national shame. The two Sassi (“stones”) districts, Sasso Caves and Sasso Barisano, are built on natural caves that have been excavated and extended over millennia. A warren of pale limestone rock churches , monasteries, palaces and houses rise above the caves, all balanced on the edge of a ravine. Our modest sized airbnb in the Sassi, once housed an entire family - not back in the middle ages, but within living memory. Inhabited since the Paleolithic Era, people began building their shelters digging in the tufa (porous rock). Fast forward to after the Second World War, the then Prime Minister Alcide De Gasperi proclaimed the state of emergency in Matera and described the city as “a national disgrace”. After that, the city was evacuated and its inhabitants transferred to the surrounding territories. Investment began trickling in from the late 1980s and although the families that had been forced out never returned, many of their descendants came back to open hotels and restaurants. As part of the inauguration, Salvadore Dali bronze sculptures became prominent and you can find them scattered throughout the Sassi, along with an incredible exhibition of his works in the 12the century Church of Our Lady of Virtues . This collection reveals the telling gaze of a tourist looking over the Sassi from the elevated town square; a squatter who has taken up residence in No 126; a local who seeks out a modest living making pottery in his newly acquired cave; a Salvador Dali bronze sculpture alongside 14th Century religious paintings; and an overview of the Sassi perched on the ravine’s edge.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.