honorable mention
Simone Mestroni italy
title
Kabristan-Land of graves
It's in 2016 that things again radically changed, when Burhan Wani, a charismatic guerilla leader, was killed by Indian soldiers, generating a massive agitation in the valley.
Due to the widespread frustration, in the following years, more and more youth from different social background joined militancy, while orthodox Islamic ideologies, mostly linked to Salafia, have started to overcome the traditional Sufi tradition of the valley.
Kabristan, meaning graveyard in Urdu, is an attempt to represent this paralysed potential, this mixture of anthropological ingredients ready to explode into a new massive stage of violence. The project was developed in Srinagar, the valley's main city, and it blends different aspects of the relation between people and the pressure of the past, primarily perceived as a deadly and pressurizing atmosphere which intertwines with inner and outer landscapes. It is mainly the calm preceding a predictable storm that I tried to portray throughout a series of visual gravestones, differently balanced in their aesthetic and metaphorical composition, just giving the impression of an intimate tension between the past and the future, grief and anger, introspection and violence, political utopia and bitter realities of the conflict.
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entry description
Since 1947 Kashmir's region has been at the core of a controversial dispute between India and Pakistan, who fought three wars over it in 1947, 1965 and 1999. Moreover, since 1989, an anti-Indian guerilla warfare has erupted in the Indian side of the territory. The separatist insurgency, massively supported by the Muslim majority population, was fuelled by Pakistani army, and deeply rooted in Islamic political ideologies, formally covered by the slogan “Azadi”, meaning freedom in Urdu. The guerilla warfare in the long term was anyway crushed by the brutality of Indian army, and, after 2001, the Azadi movement witnessed a widespread downfall and a general disappointment towards separatist politics.It's in 2016 that things again radically changed, when Burhan Wani, a charismatic guerilla leader, was killed by Indian soldiers, generating a massive agitation in the valley.
Due to the widespread frustration, in the following years, more and more youth from different social background joined militancy, while orthodox Islamic ideologies, mostly linked to Salafia, have started to overcome the traditional Sufi tradition of the valley.
Kabristan, meaning graveyard in Urdu, is an attempt to represent this paralysed potential, this mixture of anthropological ingredients ready to explode into a new massive stage of violence. The project was developed in Srinagar, the valley's main city, and it blends different aspects of the relation between people and the pressure of the past, primarily perceived as a deadly and pressurizing atmosphere which intertwines with inner and outer landscapes. It is mainly the calm preceding a predictable storm that I tried to portray throughout a series of visual gravestones, differently balanced in their aesthetic and metaphorical composition, just giving the impression of an intimate tension between the past and the future, grief and anger, introspection and violence, political utopia and bitter realities of the conflict.
about the photographer
Simone Mestroni has developed visual storytelling skills along with his fieldwork research on ethnographic aspects of Kashmiri conflict. While completing his PhD in anthropology he has been working as video operator and as fixer for photographers in India. Simone's ethnographic book on Kashmir “Lines of Control” (Meltemi 2018) is presently used as textbook for anthropology courses in three Italian universities. In October 2017 his first documentary “After Prayers” has been awarded with the Wenner Gren foundation postdoctoral grant. His photographic project “Kabristan” is finalist at Kolga Tblisi in the documentary section.back to gallery
