Pietra — About

Exhibitions Piet[r]à, Harbo Bar, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2021 Piet[r]à, 10’dan Sonra / After T(h)en, KA Atölye, Ankara, 2021 Piet[r]à, Still Young Gallery, MIA, Milan Photo Fair, Italy, 2019 Piet[r]à, EROSIONI. Puglia: Leggende, Utopie, Visioni. curated by: Ilaria Speri e Massimo Torrigiani, Istituto Italiano di Cultura Barcelona, Spain, 2019 Piet[r]à, Siyah Beyaz Art Gallery, Ankara, Turkey, 2018 Piet[r]à, Piet[r]à, Fotografia Europea, Reggio Emilio, Italy, 2018 Piet[r]à, Engaged, Active, Aware; Women’s perspectives Now, Organ Vida International Photography Festival, Zagreb, Croatia, 2018 Studio Lampo, Francavilla Fontana, Italy, 2018 Piet[r]à, curated by Giuseppe Amedeo Arnesano, Castello Aragonese, Castro, Italy, 2018 Piet[r]à, Ti racconto il mare. Borghi Storici Marinari di Puglia, Museo Archeologico, Castro, Italy, 2017

The Region of Puglia commissioned artists Cemre Yeşil (Turkey) and Alice Caracciolo (Italy) to make a photographic work inspired by the legend titled The Turk’s Wife.

The Turks used to regularly occupy the coast of Salento and one of the most targeted places was Castro. During one of the incursions, they stole a precious statue of Madonna, which was assigned to one of the Turkish commanders, who later gave the statue to his wife as a gift. Even though his wife was Muslim, she kept the statue as a beautiful object with an artistic value. The wife was pregnant and she was in a lot of pain. In spite of the prayers, the woman wasn’t able to give birth. The wife had a slave, a woman from Castro, who had been kidnapped and became a servant in Constantinople. The slave felt very sorry about her mistress and then she suggested sending the statue back to its former country in order to hope for a miracle. The husband was convinced and he ordered to put the statue on a ship and send it back to where it belonged. Without anyone guiding it, the ship arrived from Constantinople to Castro overnight. When fishermen saw and recognised the statue, they spread the word to all of the citizens. They rang the bells with such great joy and they all gathered around the ship. Finally the statue was brought to its former cathedral where is still regarded with such great respect. However, nobody knows what happened to the Turkish wife.

The Region of Puglia commissioned artists Cemre Yeşil (Turkey) and Alice Caracciolo (Italy) to make a photographic work inspired by the legend titled The Turk’s Wife.

The Turks used to regularly occupy the coast of Salento and one of the most targeted places was Castro. During one of the incursions, they stole a precious statue of Madonna, which was assigned to one of the Turkish commanders, who later gave the statue to his wife as a gift. Even though his wife was Muslim, she kept the statue as a beautiful object with an artistic value. The wife was pregnant and she was in a lot of pain. In spite of the prayers, the woman wasn’t able to give birth. The wife had a slave, a woman from Castro, who had been kidnapped and became a servant in Constantinople. The slave felt very sorry about her mistress and then she suggested sending the statue back to its former country in order to hope for a miracle. The husband was convinced and he ordered to put the statue on a ship and send it back to where it belonged. Without anyone guiding it, the ship arrived from Constantinople to Castro overnight. When fishermen saw and recognised the statue, they spread the word to all of the citizens. They rang the bells with such great joy and they all gathered around the ship. Finally the statue was brought to its former cathedral where is still regarded with such great respect. However, nobody knows what happened to the Turkish wife.

The Region of Puglia commissioned artists Cemre Yeşil (Turkey) and Alice Caracciolo (Italy) to make a photographic work inspired by the legend titled The Turk’s Wife.

The Turks used to regularly occupy the coast of Salento and one of the most targeted places was Castro. During one of the incursions, they stole a precious statue of Madonna, which was assigned to one of the Turkish commanders, who later gave the statue to his wife as a gift. Even though his wife was Muslim, she kept the statue as a beautiful object with an artistic value. The wife was pregnant and she was in a lot of pain. In spite of the prayers, the woman wasn’t able to give birth. The wife had a slave, a woman from Castro, who had been kidnapped and became a servant in Constantinople. The slave felt very sorry about her mistress and then she suggested sending the statue back to its former country in order to hope for a miracle. The husband was convinced and he ordered to put the statue on a ship and send it back to where it belonged. Without anyone guiding it, the ship arrived from Constantinople to Castro overnight. When fishermen saw and recognised the statue, they spread the word to all of the citizens. They rang the bells with such great joy and they all gathered around the ship. Finally the statue was brought to its former cathedral where is still regarded with such great respect. However, nobody knows what happened to the Turkish wife.

Through this legend, artists Cemre Yeşil and Alice Caracciolo make a photographic expedition to Earth — to the land of Castro in particular — through stones. They photographically question the relationship between stones and souls while trying to shed a light on the history of certain stones that are taken away from human sight and touch; such as the towers that Italians built by the water to protect from the Ottoman invasions (in 1537,1554,1573,1594,1620) and the poor statue that weighs 7 tons titled Güzel İstanbul, 1975 (meaning Beautiful İstanbul) which ‘lived’ only for 7 days in its original location. This beautiful statue of a naked woman made by the sculptor Gürdal Duyar was removed because the government back then thought it didn’t represent a Turkish Woman and then the statue became homeless.