ISLAM’S PRESENCE IN BARI

While collaborating on a volume by Domenico Copertino*, we carried out a photographic documentation of the rituals of Bari’s Islamic community during Ramadan. The encounter with this world engaged us so deeply that we decided to continue our reseaWhile collaborating on a volume by Domenico Copertino*, we carried out a photographic documentation of the rituals of Bari’s Islamic community during Ramadan. The encounter with this world engaged us so deeply that we decided to continue our research, expanding it to other moments and other religious communities. We called this project: RITUALS, MIGRATIONS AND COMMUNITY.

“A social space might be understood as a material space endowed with agency: it does not merely represent a group, but creates it. The construction of a mosque, or the adaptation of an existing space into a place of worship, are acts of material space production, encompassing the symbolic, emotional and economic investment of a human group; in turn, the space built in this way actively acts upon the group that built it: it allows the group to expand, to attract public and private funding, to increase its visibility, to enter the public sphere of the city in which it is located.” –  D. Copertino, Rituali, Migrazioni, Territorialità, Edizioni Di Pagina, Bari 2023, p. 224