Prima dell’alba

Serpe sotto la pietra is part of the Habitat project, an initiative by Pennabilli Antiquariato, carried out in partnership with Chiocciola la casa del nomade, Placebo Collettive and Paesaggi Migranti, funded by Action Aid Italia E.T.S. and Fondazione Realizza il Cambiamento as part of the project ‘The CARE – Civil Actors for Rights and Empowerment’, co-funded by the European Union.

Since ancient times, humankind has entrusted to ritual the most critical moments of its personal existence and that of the community to which it belongs. According to the anthropologist Ernesto de Martino, ritual arose to help humankind cope with a ‘crisis of presence’, which it experiences when confronted with the inexplicable phenomena of nature.

In an age when scientific theories offer new insights into the unknown, making natural disasters predictable and physical or mental illnesses curable, what is the actual function of ritual today?

The proposed investigation into the theme of "ritual" originates in an area, the Valmarecchia, where the natural and the divine coexist as two sides of the same coin, where the boundary between pagan and Christian is merely a point of view filtered by one's own cultural background and the sensibilities of the surrounding community.

“Spirituality” here is resilient, changeable, and alive, manifesting itself as a tangible possibility.

If the “snake” is the superstition that slithers beneath the “stone” of evangelization, “spirituality” becomes a hiss echoing through the ravines, tinnitus for those who don’t want to “hear.”

The Night of St John (23 and 24 June), a celebration of the summer solstice, is the day on which the quintessential encounter between the two worlds – the Serpent and the Stone, the Pagan and the Christian – takes place. Rich in ritual, it provides the backdrop for an analysis of two ‘untranslatable spaces’ within the local area: the ‘cellette’ (or ‘maestadine’) and the ‘Acqua di San Giovanni’.

According to tradition, ‘at midnight on St John’s Eve, the streets – or, more precisely, the crossroads – are swarmed by terrifying hordes of witches, and anyone unwary enough to come across them risks losing their life or their sanity’ (Marco Renzi, 1998, Il Rospo d’Oro).

At crossroads, where witches and demons manifest themselves in their essence, cells were historically erected, testimonies of "stone" in the territory, "untranslatable spaces" with a strong spiritual character and a protective function for the community.

The cells examined in this photographic survey are located within the Pennabilli district and documented over the course of an entire day. All photographs are accompanied by GPS coordinates, with the aim of creating a digital geographic map of their presence. Although the selected geographical area is currently small, the project lays the foundation for possible future implementation.

The suspended multitude of small statues is presented as an act of ‘photographic-radiographic’ interpretation. An invitation to look beyond the physical object and immerse oneself in the spiritual significance of this area.

The anthropologists A. Van Gennep and M. Fortes regard the social and cultural function of ritual as primary, whilst considering the religious context to be secondary.

In order to survive over time, the rites have been shaped, regenerated, sometimes converted, changing name and face, so as not to lose the strong identity of a community that saw itself in them.
It is in this intangible heritage, passed down from generation to generation, that an individual’s true sense of belonging to a place lies, manifesting itself as ‘collective spirituality’.

The rediscovery and promotion of rituals – understood as the energy of a region – could be a response, today, to a ‘crisis of essence’ faced by individuals in search of their identity.
In an effort to help generate a new "collective memory" of the Pennabilli area, we invite you to immerse yourself in the ritual of the Night of San Giovanni, allowing yourself to be "bathed" by tradition.

“The apotropaic ritual of the Water of St John stems from the belief that, during certain transitional periods (solstices), nature and some of its elements acquire extraordinary powers” (Marco Renzi, 1998, Il Rospo d’Oro).

A ritual that takes place in the darkness, beneath the faint light of the moon. St John’s wort, lavender, rosemary, fragrant herbs and flowers are gathered before the light of day touches them, immersed in water and left beneath the night sky on 23 June. At dawn, those who bathe in this fragrant water welcome the transition, let go of the old and place their trust in the new. It is a ritual still practised in the community of Penne and links the healing power of nature to the blessing of St John the Baptist, a figure of transition and purification.