Instagram @edoardodr
Edoardo De Ruggiero
ITALIE
Edoardo De Ruggiero is an artist and filmmaker whose work primarily focuses on the complex nuances of storytelling and the impact of narratives. By skillfully intertwining photography, text, archival images, and collages, he transforms his art into a performative practice that connects the intimate sphere with collective representations.
Edoardo graduated in Communication and Journalism from La Sapienza University in Rome and is a self-taught artist. For ten years, he worked as a photographer, post-producer, and art director, developing an expertise that is reflected in his work.
Particularly dedicated to the art of book creation, Edoardo's works have been exhibited in Paris, New York, Leipzig, and Milan, and his photographs have been published in i-D, Der Spiegel, Vogue Paris, Esquire, and L'Express Magazine.
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Campus Stellae
On November 28, 2022, I set out with a young person, a stranger to me, for a three-month walk covering more than 1,500 kilometers. This was his last chance, as a minor facing legal action, to join a social reintegration project.
The teenager I was with was not allowed to bring a cell phone, money, or recorded music—only four euros and thirty cents of daily pocket money. We had seventy euros between the two of us for lodging, food, and other necessities. We had one rest day every ten days. It was an emotional closed-door experience for three months.
The young person had been informed that if he wished, he could end the experience at any time and return to his previous situation. Placed in a foster home by Child Protective Services, with a criminal trial underway and having failed at all previous attempts to help him, S. was one of those young people battered by life, who had lived through dramatic stories. Neglected by their families, these adolescents are under psychological pressure and are victims of the adults who should have taken care of them.
I became involved in reintegration programs through the Seuil association, created twenty years ago by Bernard Ollivier, a French journalist and writer who had the intuition to propose to the French state the idea of taking young people who had committed minor offenses out of detention centers and putting them on the road. A young walker costs the state three times less than a prisoner, and there is also a chance for redemption. Young people who have experienced prison before adulthood have a 90% chance of reoffending once they reach adulthood...