Poveglia

The Isola di Poveglia is a tableau of decay and history. Crumbling walls, overgrown courtyards and dilapidated buildings tell of its past as a quarantine station and convalescent home.

The soft lights of dawn and dusk cast long shadows on abandoned corridors, peeling paint and rusted iron gates. Ivy and moss reclaim the stone facades, creating a poignant contrast between nature's resilience and man's abandonment.

Though, despite its desolation, there are moments of unexpected beauty. Wildflowers bloom amidst the rubble, sunlight filters through broken roofs, and the lagoon surrounding this island of suffering is placid.

Giersiefen’s Poveglia narrative is both melancholic and evocative, forcing the viewer to reflect on the contradiction between a dark human history and nature’s resilience. The eerie stillness that pervades, from the ghostly silhouettes of bare trees against the sky to the broken windows that once framed the lives of the isolated and sick, reveals its ghostly charm.

Poveglia

Ephemeral illuminations