Matteo Guidi

(Cesena, Italy, 1978) lives in Barcelona. He is an artist with a background in ethno-anthropology. He operates at the intersection between art and anthropology, investigating complex contexts of more or less closed structures. His practice looks into the ways individuals, or groups of, manage their own movement, on a daily basis, through strongly defined systems which tend to objectify them and even induce forms of self restraint. Reflecting on unpredictable methods of daily resistance sparked by a combination of simplicity and ingenuity, he focus on contexts that are considered marginal or exceptional but, in reality, anticipate more common scenarios.

He alternate his artistic and anthropological research with academic profession. He teaches in the BA of graphic design and visual communication at the ISIA Urbino (Italy). Form 2006 is member of CoMoDo (Communicates Multiply Duties) social design cooperative, from 2015 is member of A/A Network (Art and Anthropology Network) and from 2018 is also collaborating with GREDITS (Design and Social Transformation Research Group of BAU).
www.matteoguidi.com

 

Moca Collective

The name MoCa Collective was coined by a group of twelve inmates from Spoleto Prison (I) in 2008. An acronym for Mondo Carcerario (Prison World), it is inspired by the coffee maker which, beyond producing the dark brew symbolic of moments of conviviality, is one of the most multifunctional objects in prison. Its form perfectly adapts to the needs of everyday life, substituting an iron, a hammer, a nutcracker, a meet tenderizer and even a vegetable masher. And since it is made of metal, it can be rattled repeatedly against the cell bars, triggering a form of peaceful protest commonly known as battitura. “Moca” thus becomes the perfect acronym able to express the plurality of experiences constituting the “prison world”.

The collective also includes all those detained in other prisons who have contributed to this book or who wish to participate in future projects.  MoCa collective does not exclude those who may have left reclusion but who, in any case, feel the need to speak of it.

Those from MoCa collective who have provided the greatest contribution to this project are:

Mario Trudu

Born in Arzana (Nuoro) in 1950. In October 2019, after long period of legal requests, by his lawyer, to be able to continue his imprisonment in his family house, due to age issues and a serious illness, he died in Oristano hospital in 2019, when he was beginning to see a chance to succeed. He was an animal breeder before entering prison. Arrested in 1979, he has been detained for almost 43 years and spent ten months as a fugitive (from June 1986 to April 1987). He was spending all his prison time in High Security prisons, where he was serving a life sentence for crimes which, based on article 4 bis o.p., deprive his sentence of any benefit. While in prison, he obtained a diploma from artistic secondary school and wrote his autobiography, TOTU SA BERIDADI, Cronache di un sequestro (Chronicles of a Kidnapping) and Cent’anni di memoria, Elogio dei miei vecchi (One hundred years of memory. Praise of my old parents).  He had a personal Facebook profile which, obviously, he is not allowed to manage alone.

Carmelo Musumeci

Born in 1955 in Aci Sant’Antonio (Catania), he has been detained for 23 years and since 2017 he obtained parole. He was serving an uninterrupted sentence and he was condemned to life imprisonment for crimes which, based on article 4 bis o.p., deprive his sentence of any benefit . In 2011, he obtained a Masters Degree in Law with a thesis on benefitless life sentences, and in 2015 a MA in philosophy. He is an active writer who has recently published his fourth book. Thanks to friends and volunteers outside of prison, he runs since 2009 a webpage carmelomusumeci.com within which he collects writings, thoughts and letters, leading a battle for the abolition of benefitless life imprisonment. Now is active in the field of inmates rights, specially on life imprisonement.