Maria Grazia Chiuri – young girls and their master ladies

Lecce images Lucas Lehmann agrarian versus urban Chiuri’s vision drew inspiration by cultural anthropologist Ernesto De Martino’s Sud e Magia, a 1959 essay on Southern Italian ritualistic traditions. Apulia is renowned for tarantism, the belief that people could become possessed after being bitten by a tarantula and could be saved through a musical exorcism; the book reviews some cases of young women healing from their apathy and melancholia by dancing the tarantella. «It’s likely they were simply depressed» suggests Chiuri. «I came up with some ironic drawings, where the roles are reversed: the spiders are jumping around and the women keep the rhythm on the tammorra. I wanted to carry this heritage of traditions into the future, so that it could be seen with.