The installation by Eduardo Castaldo at Cappella Pappacoda, inside the church of San Giovanni Maggiore in Naples, is attracting students, teachers, citizens and visitors, according to Il Mattino.
The central image is a classical Madonna and Child, torn open to reveal a documentary photograph from Gaza showing a Palestinian mother holding her child. The tear is the core of the work: the sacred upper image is broken to uncover the contemporary photograph beneath.
Castaldo is a Neapolitan former Middle East photojournalist who works as a street artist, according to DESINA and UP Magazine. His project connects documentary photography with religious imagery and intervention in public space.
The chapel work belongs to a wider mapping of fifteen interventions in Naples' historic centre, according to il manifesto. In those street works, Marian votive shrines are placed in tension with photographs of children from Gaza.
Il manifesto describes Castaldo's method as layering images and then tearing the upper sacred image to create a "svelamento," an unveiling. UP Magazine describes the torn religious image as an act intended to provoke reflection and compassion.
Il Mattino presents the Cappella Pappacoda installation as new, while DESINA describes the work at San Giovanni Maggiore as permanently installed. The reviewed sources do not give an exact installation date.
The reviewed sources provide no attendance figures. What is reported is the mix of visitors: school groups and teachers alongside citizens and tourists stopping in the historic-centre church.
