WHITE AS SILENCE 

video installation 

loop

The video shows footage of seventy kilometers of coast from Marina di Acate, up to the inland in the district of Vittoria, in the province of Ragusa, to Pozzallo. While the narrator voice (sicilian actor Antonio Stella), chants a long list of different terms and adjectives to define the color white.

On the Sicilian coast, in a length of 70 km, there are glasshouses where tomatoes are grown. In this "endless grey line", mostly foreign agricultural workers have been working for 30 years. During this time, there have been different migrant workers: 80-90s from the Maghreb countries, early 2000s from Eastern European countries. More recently, migrants have come from sub-Saharan African countries. 

The official figures speak of 20 thousand workers, 60% of them foreigners, the unofficial sources mention up to 26 thousand, 90% of them with foreign background. Most of them do not have a residence permit, which they cannot get because they do not have a work contract. (see Law n. 189 30 July 2002, Bossi-Fini Law). 

This is not only illegal work, but enslavement. Both the working conditions and the housing are dramatically bad: 3 euros per hour, 16 hours per day, with temperatures that can reach 50 degrees in the glass houses. The location of the housing structures does not allow for other work or integration opportunities. In addition, there is the tragedy for the women among them: they are also sexually exploited. This modern slavery, also corresponds to a traditional theme, the difficult relationship between women and agriculture. 

But that is not all. The deeper one delves into the matter, the more problems come to light. Environmentally harmful methods are used to remove plastic from the glass houses. Along with tons of harvested tomatoes, and other rubbish, including asbestos, everything is burned in the fields. Paradoxically - locals complain -  in Sicilian supermarkets one can find tomatoes from Cameroon.