“Why do we walk? Why do we play music? Especially why do we do walk and play music when someone has died? At the moment, at least, we don’t need the exercise. The music is not joyful or uplifting, but somber and melancholy. It can make us feel worse. Horns and pipes, flutes and drums pierce the air and our heart. Perhaps we walk to make sure the music doesn’t break our heart.

In “Polignano a Mare”, people walk. Musicians play instruments. Everyone follows the body. They wear black although the sun is shining as if it were unaware that someone so very special has passed away.

Polignano a Mare (population 16,000) is a tiny gem of a town in the southernmost part of Italy. It’s a town built of stone on craggy cliffs worn out by waves over millennia. The houses and churches and shops are built above a dark blue sea. Rome is 300 miles away. Albania is only 50 miles “as the crow flies” across the Adriatic Sea. Archeologists have found the bones of Stone Age settlers under modern Polignano. The Greeks, Goths and Normans have all left their mark on the land.

In August, 2006, I visited Polignano a Mare several times. During one visit, while having lunch near a tree whose flowers smelled of light faint perfume, I turned on my camera.” - Aaron Krach.

Aaron Krach lives and works in New York City, USA. Selected Exhibitions 2006 DCKT Contemporary, New York City, USA /// Exit Art, New York City, USA /// 2004 Kunsthaus Dresden, Dresden, Germany.