Via Gordiani

The controversial relationship between the Italian government and the Italian Roma community has been the source of various conflicts as of late. The most recent atrocity being the drowning of two young Roma girls earlier this summer – their blanketed bodies unnoticed on the beach by locals and paramedics alike. The government’s answer to this deep division within their society is to push towards integration through a stronger policy of control – creating a database of compulsory finger-prints of all of Roma people, including minors. This Big Brother-like initiative would infringe on the civil rights of thousands of people.

Because of the recent problems with crime, and the legacy engendered from poverty and social conditions, the municipality of Rome decided to substitute the meager homes of many romas living in the Roma camp of via Gordiani (near Largo Preneste) with “containers” equipped with electricity and other facilities. This move has been combined with a system of security control, video surveillance and the regulation of visitors – demonstrating the ambiguous line between social intervention and ghettoisation.

This photographic reportage documents the everyday life of the Roma people living in the via Gordiani gypsy camp, a place where the social situation is less problematic than in other camps, but where the families live under strict state control – definitive confirmation of being a second class citizen.

Michele Palazzi
www.michelepalazziphotographer.com

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