Keepers of Light
WHO WE ARE
The aim of the research is to investigate lighthouses as places full of cultural and historical significance, potential objects of investigation from which to draw the memories and narratives of the maritime communities. A study of this kind is dictated by the need to rediscover these structures that have left an important mark on the identities of the maritime communities. If for the man of the sea the lighthouse is the instrument that indicates the safe route, for the man of the land, on the other hand, it is a mysterious construction with immobile forms, located in a territory "on the border" and able to face the majesty of the sea and mingle with the silence of the surrounding landscape. The life stories of the men and women who lived and worked in these extraordinary artifacts are able to reveal a complex micro-universe full of relationships: the lighthouse is in fact a workplace, but also a domestic, intimate and personal space. Forced to a solitary existence full of sacrifices, in their stories it is possible to grasp a social micro-universe, made of affections, of intimacy with themselves, of meaningful relationships with objects and with the lighthouse itself, which has become over time a dear life partner. Visiting a lighthouse means capturing the spirit of a landscape suspended between land and sea; listen to the voices of its inhabitants capturing the sense of a life "guarding the sea", of navigation and mariners; grasping its essence in the undisturbed quiet of isolation and distance from everything that is "lived daily"; understand the value of a "full" solitude.
