Local Memories
This section of the exhibition focuses solely on the islands, and is not directly related to colonial deportations. For almost two centuries, Ponza, Favignana, Ustica, and the Tremiti archipelago were primarily used as spaces of confinement and detention by various regimes. Under Bourbon rule, from the 18th to the early 19th century, the islands were converted into penal colonies. After the Unification of Italy in 1861, they were designated as domicilio coatto sites. This police exile regime targeted mainly political activists and suspected criminals, who were relatively free to move during the day (though constantly surveilled) but were locked up at night. The Fascist regime revitalized the domicilio coatto system by rebranding it as confino, a peculiar surveillance regime that targeted thousands of individuals accused of opposing Fascism. Homosexuals, members of the Roma community, and anyone suspected of being an anti-Fascist were also among the victims of the confino regime.
The unique history of the islands as sites of confinement is partly intertwined with the presence of Libyan deportees. The existing penal colonies on these islands facilitated their conversion into sites of deportation, detention, and forced exile for Libyan deportees in 1911 and thereafter. Under Fascism, many of the buildings that were used to host and detain Libyan deportees were repurposed to host (and sometimes detain) the victims of the confino regime. In Ustica, anti-Fascist militants sent to confino interacted with notable members of Libyan communities still exiled on the island.
This section of the exhibition explores the visibility and invisibility of the memory of the Fascist period on the islands. It encourages online visitors to reflect on the presence of plaques and monuments erected on the islands to commemorate this past. Who is remembered? Who is responsible for erecting a specific plaque or monument? Which words are used to commemorate the exiles on the islands?
