Sing Sing. Il corpo di Pompei. Pompeii's Body

Our story begins in the area denied to the crowds thronging the halls that house the collections of the National Archaeological Museum in Naples. This photographic narrative reveals unexpected treasures concealed under the roofs of this Neapolitan institution.

In Luigi Spina's work, a rusty iron door concealed under several coats of paint stands for the Pillars of Hercules. When it opens, we find ourselves peering into a long narrow hallway: our eyes need to become accustomed to the light. We are standing in what has always been inexplicably called Sing Sing: cells barred by grates preserving the memories of a material culture that hails from Pompei and Ercolano.

Bronze, glass, ceramic, and terracotta artifacts fill these rooms, evoking the catastrophic eruption of 79 AD that brought everyday life in this area to a sudden end. The shelves are cluttered with candle sticks, decorations, handles, statues, pots, oil lamps... and even charred bread. It all bears living and highly significant testimony to the natural holocaust when the actions of the God Vulcan led to an unprecedented tragedy.

Luigi Spina's photographs lead us in the discovery of the cells, their contents, the masterpieces hidden from the eyes of the public. A table covered with a white cloth holds a series of objects from the houses of men and women whose lives were cut short in ancient times.