Uncomfortable Siblings (2016-2020)
“It is 50 years and two months I am inside”. In 1978 Italy was among the first countries in the world to close asylum for mentally ill by law. But Sandro still counts the years of his confine-ment since he first entered Santa Maria della Pietà. Today 82, he says he is still waiting for a change in his life.
Towards the end of the ‘60s, Rome asylum hosted around 3,000 patients. It was known as “the city of madmen”. Among them there was Pina. “Home? I have never had one”, she says. She entered the asylum when she was 5. According to her medical records she had learning difficulties.
Rossana was interned in 1958: she was 22 and she had a one-year old child. She was reportedly “too jealous of her husband”. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia and in 14 years of hospitalization, she underwent electric shock several times.
In jargon they are referred to as “Asylum leftover”. They are survivors and witness of an era that ended 40 years ago. Santa Maria della Pietà, today partly abandoned, survives in their memories. 40 years on, Pina, Rossana and Sandro still carry the consequences of the institution.
On a quest for presences of their past in their daily life, this project aims at combining as in a mosaic, private memories of a collective history. Asylums in Italy, as in most European countries, are part of history, but segregation is still part of our present.
Photographic reproduction of a 1960 picture - author unknown - acquired as documentation. The original picture is currently preserved among Pina’s medical records at the archive of the former mental hospital. Pina was 5 when she first entered Santa Maria della Pietà orphanage. When she was 14 she was moved to the adult section and this picture was taken. She was discharged in 1978. Pictures were taken when patients were admitted in the asylum order to identify them. The Roman number XIII, 13, indicates the pavilion were she was initially interned. Pavillon 13 was reserved to "dirty women".
Rome, 2017. Pavilion 3 in Santa Maria della Pietà served as an observation ward for women. Opened in 1914, Santa Maria della Pietà has been the main asylum for mentally ill until 1978. It used to host around 3,000 people in 41 pavilions. Today half of the buildings are abandoned.
Rome, 2017. Sandro sitting in his room in the old age home were he lives since 2013: "It is 50 years and three months I am inside" he says.
Rome, 2017. A bed in a room formerly used to isolate and restrain patients in the asylum. The original room and bed are preserved and exhibited at the Museum of the Mind in Rome. The Museum is in one of the building of Santa Maria della Pietà, the former asylum for mentally ill in Rome. Pina says she experienced restraint and that she was often bound to her bed, legs and arms tied.
Rome, 1980. Digital scanning of a 1980’s picture - author unknown - acquired as documentation. The original picture is currently preserved by Rossana. According to her, the picture was shot in the early ’80s while she was in her room in the one of the pavilion in the former asylum. She was officially discharged in 1980, but like many other former patients she was moved to a different pavilion in the former asylum and lived then for around ten more years. Unlike before, she was then allowed to go out.
Rome, 2018. Rossana is sitting outside the room she shares with Pina at the old age house where they live since 2013. While Pina sleeps, Rossana spends most of her time smoking.
Rome, 2017. Pina and Rossana sitting on a bench at the old age house. They met in Santa Maria della Pietà in the '60s while they were interned in the same ward. They often fight like cat and dog but since then, they were never apart.
Rome, 2017. Pina takes a walk in the garden at the old age home where she lives now. She often spends most of her time inside the room or sitting outside in the sun.