Italian artist Eduardo Castaldo has unveiled his artwork titled ‘Holy Mothers of Gaza’ at the Pappacoda Chapel in Naples, Italy. At the launch on November 11, he partially peeled back a painting of the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus to reveal a photograph of a mother in Gaza cradling her child. The photo was captured by Palestinian photojournalist Omar El Qattaa.
The artwork forms part of a larger installation of similar projects across religious sites in Naples, a city that the artist dsescribed as ‘anti-Zionist’.
‘Holy Mothers of Gaza’ sets a painting of the Madonna and Child against a real photograph of a mother and child from Gaza. The stark visual transition draws attention to the human cost of the conflict, particularly its impact on women and children. The artist uses it to link religious depictions of motherhood to the lived experiences of mothers in a war-torn region such as Palestine. “The tear of the icon becomes an act of necessary sorrow; it is the wound that heals, unites, and moves us to compassion,” Castaldo was quoted as saying by New York-based publication UP Magazine.
About the artist
Eduardo Castaldo, based in Naples, is an acclaimed photojournalist and World Press Photo Award winner who worked in the Middle East before turning to street art to express his view of the world. He is best known for work that blends religious Madonna artworks with real photojournalistic images. Castaldo received the third prize in the Spot News category at the 2012 World Press Photo contest for his photo story Dawn of a Revolution, documenting the Egyptian uprising against then-president Hosni Mubarak.
{{/usCountry}}Eduardo Castaldo, based in Naples, is an acclaimed photojournalist and World Press Photo Award winner who worked in the Middle East before turning to street art to express his view of the world. He is best known for work that blends religious Madonna artworks with real photojournalistic images. Castaldo received the third prize in the Spot News category at the 2012 World Press Photo contest for his photo story Dawn of a Revolution, documenting the Egyptian uprising against then-president Hosni Mubarak.
{{/usCountry}}Castaldo has spoken about his uneasy relationship with his role as a Western photojournalist in Cairo and Palestine during the Arab Spring and the Israeli occupation. “I always had concerns about my position. I felt like a Western guy who took pictures of people from the Middle East that were sold to Western newspapers, participating in a narrative that I didn’t agree with at all. I always thought that I was selling people in their most vulnerable moments and experiences to others,” he said.
Castaldo's earlier works explored the experiences of Palestinians under Israeli occupation. One of his notable street-art projects, ‘Welcome to Bethlehem’, was based on photographs he captured of Palestinian workers waiting at Israeli military checkpoints to cross into Jerusalem for work. He later transformed the photographs into a street-art collage and said he initially felt uncomfortable publishing images of people in such vulnerable circumstances, according to Middle East Monitor. His transition from photojournalism to street art allowed him to revisit these experiences and communicate their stories through a different medium.