My only property is the toilet’s key

Presentation of the photographic work Rosa per sempre (Rosa Forever)
Happening: “Mi som padronga dla ciav dal cagadù”
October 10, 2026 – Cortile Pomati, via Magnani 47, Breme Lomellina
Curated by Loredana Galante and Giacomo Pomati, featuring the Banda di Mede, pastries by Chilò, and non-professional actors.
This photograph is not merely a fragment of memory; it is the visual and conceptual backbone of a performative happening that rehabilitates the invisible history of our roots. The shot portrays a great-grandmother and a child within an authentic rural setting. The image forcefully aligns with the atmospheres of Neorealist cinema, embracing its aesthetic of truth: natural light sculpting the bodies, unidealized faces, and a lived space used as a speaking scenography. Just as in the masterpieces of cinematic realism, the dignity of the subjects emerges from the spontaneity of a proud gaze that dialogues directly with the camera.
The work finds its full realization in the dimension of commemorative performance. Within a festive, popular-style framework—animated by a brass band, wine, pastries, and non-professional actors who embody the truth of the street’s raw presence—the photograph turns into a manifesto of social and legal denunciation.
The contrast between the woman’s proud serenity and the harshness of her historical condition is brutal. Until the Family Law Reform of 1975, wives in Italy could not inherit the ownership of their husbands’ estate, receiving only the right of usufruct. The ironic and tragic quote by great-grandmother Rosa Cagni Pomati that guides the performance—”Mi som padronga dla ciav dal cagadù” (My only property is the bathroom key)—finds an extraordinary visual metaphor in this shot. The great-grandmother’s strong, knotted hands, legally excluded from owning the land and the house she nevertheless nurtured, hold the child—the firstborn of the firstborn of her firstborn. They grip him in the only possession that no one could strip away from her: the authority of affection and the transmission of roots.
In this context, the photograph ceases to be a nostalgic family album and transforms into an act of poetic justice. It restores historical centrality and possession to someone who legally owned nothing, delivering that heritage of resilience to future generations.