Lomilka Kamenja
We collected stories, caught light and shadows, scraps, memories, knots, and fates, and intertwined them all, wove them into a new Rashomon-style story, trying to recreate a place of remembrance, a way of life.
Stories and Memories
Artist Barbara Kapelj and photographer Gabriele Fuso researched and documented the stories and memories of the fates of women who worked with stone in the karst quarries between Slovenia and Italy.
The Project
The artists delved into an intriguing historical topic with a distinct temporal, geographical and contextual location, in terms of manual labour, the organisation of work collectives, gender particularities and historical period, and created new stories in a space of memory, a space of reflection. They have created a scenario that unfolds between reality and fiction, chasing lights and shadows, pebbles, memories, knots, destinies. They have intertwined them, woven them into a new Rashomon story, with which they want to recreate a meeting point, a point of connection, as a reflection on the intertwining of ancient stories and the stories of today's women, who are carving in stone a completely different story. Because every stone has a thousand destinies and behind every stone there is one breaker.
Woman Stonebreaker
An extraordinary poem by Stana Lazar, née Milič, reveals the colourful beauty of the luscious Repentabor dialect. Her poem Deštin was one of the first things we found when we set out to trace the history of women whose fates were tied to stone and gusts of the bora. Fate. Fates. They unfolded before us, between rocky ridges, shrouded in dense fog and covered with pines, hornbeams, ash trees and junipers. They led us among countless expressive faces reflecting the beauty of these paths, braving the fierce winds, among the stones that bore the sublime gleam of blood-red sunsets.
joined together
We would like to thank: Olga and Zora Grmek, Vanda Mržek, Maja Štembal Capuder, Breda Potočnik, Jasna Simoneta, Maddalena Giuffrida, Fabiola Faidiga, Melania Kalz, Maja Hrovat, Špela Šedivy, Tjaša Cigoj, Sibila Leskovec, Jasmina Rijavec, Ženski pevski zbor Barje, Klemen Jerinc, Marmor Sežana d.d., dr. Božidar Premrl, Andrej Kos, Breda Kapelj, Jasna Klančišar, Sonja Bezenšek, Silvan in Ivanka Grmek, Teja Mržek, Riccardo Kovacic, Vesna Guštin Grilanc, Gabriel and Darko Jeram, Ivan Vogrič, Katja Juren, Srednja Gradbena, geodetska in okoljevarstvena šola Ljubljana, Marmor Hotavlje d.o.o, family Milič Lazar, Patricija and Fabrizio Bozzetti.
This project is supported by: MOL (Mestna občina Ljubljana), Republika Slovenija, Ministrstvo za kulturo,
Leopoldina Krenner (Barbara's great-grandmother, that made the laces on the begining of 20th century), Lafilmo Udine.