‘L’Oro in bocca’
Montalbano Jonico, Italy, 2022

Mural painted for the AppARTEngo Festival in Montalbano Jonico, a beautiful old town in the Basilicata region of Italy overlooking the Ionian Sea and surrounded by a particular rock formations called ‘Calanchi’ which evoke suggestive lunar landscapes.

This piece is an homage to the peasant culture of those areas and a celebration of a simple lifestyle which characterise all the small rural cities. Those splendid places inhabited without interruption for hundreds of years are now threatened with extinction, due to the massive emigration that took place in recent years and is currently underway.

Are we ready to start a turnaround and return to re-inhabit these magnificent towns?

Photography and video by Cristina Carbonara 
Aereal shots by Alejandro Diaz Llosa