Maria Vittoria Desiato
174 LITERS
Maria Vittoria Desiato (1997) is an Italian photographer and visual artist currently based in Bergamo, Italy.
Her artistic research focuses on both family and anonymous archives. Through a playful and experimental approach, she investigates the emotional weight of memory, reinterpreting archival materials to create new narratives and perspectives.
Her artistic research focuses on both family and anonymous archives. Through a playful and experimental approach, she investigates the emotional weight of memory, reinterpreting archival materials to create new narratives and perspectives.
Maria Vittoria Desiato "174 Liters"
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174 Liters
According to the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), 174 liters is the minimum amount of water required each day for one person to carry out essential domestic activities. In Calabria, southern Italy, this quantity is not always guaranteed. Prolonged droughts, an ageing water infrastructure and the effects of climate change have turned water scarcity into a recurring condition that shapes everyday life.
According to the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), 174 liters is the minimum amount of water required each day for one person to carry out essential domestic activities. In Calabria, southern Italy, this quantity is not always guaranteed. Prolonged droughts, an ageing water infrastructure and the effects of climate change have turned water scarcity into a recurring condition that shapes everyday life.
"The impossibility of completing the measure reflects the impossibility of fully reconstructing memory itself".
Growing up between northern Italy and Calabria, where my family originates, I became familiar with everyday strategies for coping with water shortages. Buckets, basins, bottles and improvised containers were not exceptional objects but part of daily routines. Returning to my family archive, I found these vessels appearing repeatedly in photographs and among preserved belongings. They reveal how an environmental condition gradually becomes embedded in gestures, habits and the material culture of a community.
Using these containers as units of measurement, I attempt to reconstruct the hypothetical daily requirement of 174 liters. The action is deliberately incomplete: many of the vessels have disappeared, their capacity is uncertain, and the total can never be accurately reached. The impossibility of completing the measure reflects the impossibility of fully reconstructing memory itself. What remains are fragments, approximations and absences.
Using these containers as units of measurement, I attempt to reconstruct the hypothetical daily requirement of 174 liters. The action is deliberately incomplete: many of the vessels have disappeared, their capacity is uncertain, and the total can never be accurately reached. The impossibility of completing the measure reflects the impossibility of fully reconstructing memory itself. What remains are fragments, approximations and absences.
The project combines archival photographs, contemporary still lifes and sculptural arrangements, transforming functional objects into witnesses of a shared environmental history. Removed from their original use, these containers become markers of adaptation, resilience and intergenerational knowledge. They speak not only about the scarcity of a natural resource, but also about the ways communities develop practices of care and survival in response to changing landscapes.
174 Liters reflects on the invisible relationship between landscape and domestic life, asking how ecological conditions are preserved within family histories and how ordinary objects can become evidence of a collective experience that continues to resonate across generations.
174 Liters reflects on the invisible relationship between landscape and domestic life, asking how ecological conditions are preserved within family histories and how ordinary objects can become evidence of a collective experience that continues to resonate across generations.