What do the stones tell us? I have been asked this question, and not just on this occasion.
They tell of the history of the people who first quarried them, then transported, shaped and finally assembled them; of those who lived within those walls over the centuries, and of those who envisaged and then brought to life their coming together.
They also tell us about the topography of that geographical area, and about the culture and social organisation of that time and place.
They speak of the past intertwined with the present.
Architecture is never merely a technical matter; it responds to the human need for shelter and, essentially, to the innate need to communicate, to fill the void and to shape nature: a fertile mother and a source of unease, an inextricable code of events to which meaning must be given.
No residential structure escapes these rules, least of all the seat of power.
In our imagination, a castle is a fairy-tale place, a dream we have admired since childhood and projected into our imaginative landscapes of stories with happy endings or bloody battles, featuring dragons and ogres to be beheaded.
It is (or was), however, lived experience: a central manifestation within the community of power and defence, a hive of people and trade; a visual code drawn up for the community, which recognises itself in it, but also a firm and enduring warning to the outsider.
I have used photography, in this sense, for its power to deconstruct reality, to support our imagination, as a medium for amplifying attention, whilst striving not to offer the viewer a pre-determined and imposed path, and to resist the temptation to recreate those fairy-tale atmospheres left to the tenderness of memory.
Each frame is a clue, an invitation to experience the place, to explore its deepest meaning and to reconstruct – why not? – one’s own Castle. There is no room for the human figure precisely so that everyone can place themselves within it as they please. As you wander through the depicted spaces, taking in every sensory stimulus and its endless evocations; perhaps stepping into the shoes of a lady or a warrior, or simply that of a contemporary visitor – curious and attentive – who allows themselves to be enchanted by the call of an imagined past, one to be safeguarded for the future.
Adriano Nicoletti
The ‘Pietre che parlano’ residency, coordinated by Coolclub and under the artistic direction of Big Sur, was organised as part of the ‘Il Castello di tutti’ project, promoted by the Municipality of Corigliano D’Otranto and supported by the Ministry of Culture to enable wider participation in culture, as part of the public call for proposals (PNRR M1C3-3) aimed at removing physical and cognitive barriers in museums, libraries and archives.
