Murmuration

Created for Stramurales 2025

Farm workers in southern Italy, both migrants and locals, face 'caporalato'; a form of employment that forces them to work in extreme and precarious conditions and survive long hours for minimal wages.

I used the image of the synchronized flight of the starlings (who give the town of Stornara its name) as a metaphor for unity and resistance. The workers, like the murmurating starlings (flock), have found strength and dignity in collective organization. The birds' predators symbolize exploitative employers, who seek to divide and subdue employees to maximize their profits, just as falcons try to separate the starlings from the flock to hunt them.

The starlings' coordinated flight reflects the solidarity and resistance of organized workers.