Albana Loka

Manuel Montesano is a photographer, videomaker, and teacher. Born and raised in Bolzano, he pursued his studies in the field of images in Bologna, where he currently lives and works. He collaborates with various photographers and multimedia artists, travelling wherever necessary. He is actively dedicated to the study and research of personal and professional projects, covering everything from social, cultural, and anthropological topics to questions about the perception of images. This project is born from an interest in tradition, culture, and the particular bond that each individual has with a specific territory. This is research that investigates the social role of work in relation to one’s origins; the marks left by each individual and the dreams that are yet to be brought to reality. It is a dialogue that explores the concept of ‘Heimat’ and the meaning that each of us assign to the word.

“Hamkâri, in Persian, means collaboration. If we all—everyone in the world—work together, we’ll create a beautiful world”, says Mahdi Heydari during an interview. And it is exactly that: work is one of the main reasons for emigration, adds Gabriel Maria Sala, anthropologist and psychologist. Enabling a person to work is a way to give value to an individual and create new social fabrics. Each individual carries with them their history, their culture, often thousand-year-old traditions, and in this way “we have treasures that revitalise our country”. Historically, every territory is built up of layers and layers of migration: South Tyrol is one of many examples of this. “This allows us to think of it not as an exception, but rather as a progression of life in the world,” concludes Sala, in reference to the phenomenon of migration. Attempting to better understand these concepts, Manuel Montesano has dug into the history of various individuals during dialogue with eleven people, discovering what they have left, what they have found, and what meaning they attach to the concept of ‘Heimat’.