Spectral Proximities:
acts of speculation on the mediterranean beach
a postgraduate seminar BY PROFESSOR sergio rigoletto in collaboration WITH VIAD and the SARCHI Chair in south african art and visual culture
the sarchi chair in south african art and visual culture, 33 twickenham AVENUE, AUCKLAND PARK, JOHANNESBURG
17 April 2025
This postgraduate seminar proposes a speculative reading of a journalistic photo documenting the drowning of 13 migrants trying to reach Europe from the northern coasts of Africa. Showing their bodies covered by white sheets and lined up on the sand, the photo was taken from the dunes surrounding the Sicilian beach of Sampieri. Barely visible within the frame, the dunes are a well-known cruising site. The lecture poses the question of what it would mean to shift the orientation of the camera by acknowledging the proximity of the cruising site to the scene of migrant death. Placing this image alongside the documentary Lesvia (T. Dadjimitrou, 2024) and Barbara Visser’s photo series The Beach Belongs to Early Risers (2002), the talk will argue that this speculative gesture allows the apprehension of what we may call a ‘spectral proximity’ that implicates queerness within the scene.
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. Prof Anthony Bogues’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
- 4: Quality Education
- 17: Partnerships
Image caption: The Beach Belongs to Early Risers, Barbara Vissser (2002).
ABOUT PROF sergio rigoletto
Prof Sergio Rigoletto is currently Associate Professor of Film Studies at the University of Groningen, Netherlands. He was previously Associate Professor in Cinema Studies and Italian at the University of Oregon, USA. Alongside his rich scholarship, Rigoletto is a film critic and curator with an interest in the fields of film, television, screen art and digital media.
Rigoletto’s research focuses on the politics of film aesthetics and its relation to social change, queer media cultures, affect, stars and performance studies along with Italian cinema. Writing in both Italian and English, Rigoletto is the author of two books: Masculinity and Italian Cinema: Sexual Politics, Social Conflict and Male Crisis in the 1970s (Edinburgh University Press: 2014) and Le norme traviate (Meltemi: 2020). His current book project, titled Queer from the South: Film, Video Art and Media Activism in the Mediterranean, examines the contributions of contemporary filmmakers, visual artists and media activists to the emergence of a transnational queer imaginary that engages the material conditions of life in the Mediterranean region. His second book project considers the significance of stardom within Neorealist cinema alongside the post-WW2 Euro-American migration of film professionals, productions, styles and promotional practices. The project focuses on actress Anna Magnani, one of the figures that participated most prominently in these transnational developments. The book considers questions around gendered labour in the Italian and Hollywood film industries.
