In Italy, the exercise of collective Islamic religious rights is very problematic. The north-east of Italy is the stronghold of the Northern League political movement that has gained mainstream political popularity through its campaign against immigration. This project investigates the realities of islamic life in a hostile country that has just one official mosques and more than one million muslims. The aim is to discover and document the makeshift places of worship often based in the industrial areas of the north-east of Italy.
Nicol�² Degiorgis was born in 1985 in Bolzano Bozen, a small town at the foot of the Italian Alps. After studying Chinese for two years at the University of Venice, he moved to Hong Kong to intern in a trading company, and then to Beijing to continue his study of the Chinese language at the Capital Normal University. He interned at Magnum Photos in Paris for six months, was awarded a 2008/09 Fabrica fellowship, Benetton's communication research center, and in 2010 an artist studio at the Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation in Venice.
While pursuing a long term project regarding the situation of the Muslim community in Italy, he is being employed by the Faculty of Political Science at the University of Trieste to research immigration in Italy.
