Martina Melilli on Italian Colonial Memory and Art

In an interview with Artribune, artist Martina Melilli discusses her ongoing project 'Tripolitalians' (2010–present), which explores Italy's colonial past in Libya through family memories and archival research. The project began after a chance encounter in Brussels in 2010, when a Moroccan shopkeeper mistook her for Arabic-speaking due to her eyes, prompting her to investigate her grandfather's silence about his time in Libya. Melilli's work expands into 'Italian-African rhyzome' (2017) and 'Mum, I'm sorry' (2017), the latter dealing with objects recovered from migrants who died crossing the Mediterranean. She critiques the myth of 'Italiani brava gente' and the collective amnesia about Italy's colonial atrocities, including concentration camps and mass killings in Libya, Eritrea, Somalia, and Ethiopia. Melilli emphasizes the power of archives and subjective memory in constructing alternative narratives, and hopes to one day visit Tripoli. The interview also touches on media manipulation of migration perceptions and the role of contemporary art in creating counter-images.