“Fragments of Justice"
“Fragments of justice” consists of a serie of 27 photographs representing the courtrooms of 19 Italian courthouses.
The Italian justice system moves slowly, involving every day an impressive number of people. In the courtrooms there's a continuous bustle of judges, prosecutors, lawyers, defendants, witnesses, clerks, journalists and policemen. This crowding is replaced by the typical quiet of the closing hours, when the deserted courtrooms do not seem to forget the speeches and debates: a lawyer's robe thrown over a chair, a folder waiting to be rescued, marginal elements that may in some way bring to mind an idea of what happened during the trials.
These are fragments of feelings, perceptible only if we take the time to observe, as external viewers, these areas when they are not used. Suddenly what you know about justice can take shape. Snapshots of particularly relevant court cases can be reminded, cases that captured our imagination over the years. We can find the opportunity to think about the importance and sensitivity of the events that take place here every day, trying to imagine the difficulties of those being judged and the heavy responsibility on those who must judge another human being.
Real emotional earthquakes occur in these spaces, transformed every day into a stage on which a routine of tragedies and controversies is held. The austere judges' benches, the ominous looking cages, those crucifixes whose presence today is perhaps difficult to understand, these are some of the features within these environments, as well as the inscription: "La legge è uguale per tutti” (“The law is equal for all"), a kind of mantra, which certainly fulfills a deep need of our consciousness but that should not obscure the reality of things: "tot capita tot sententiae", each sentence depends on the personal attitude and history of each judge, a human being and not an abstract decision-making entity.
The human element on the one hand makes imperfect the course of justice, but on the other it may fix, through its flexibility, some very complicated cases. The human element. Uncertain and unpredictable. In contrast to these courtrooms, so rigid and symmetrical that if you look carefully, it seems to have the duty to appear ruthless.
The photographs were token in the courthouses of Asti, Bergamo, Brescia, Busto Arsizio, Como, Cremona, Lodi, Mantova, Milano, Modena, Monza, Padova, Parma, Pavia, Reggio Emilia, Rovereto, Trento, Verona and Vicenza.
Thanks to the Presidents of the above courthouses for their precious cooperation.
