This is Pier Paolo (1922-1975). He had to escape to Rome from Casarsa in 1950.

In Calcutta  India 1993 I started learning Italian. My teacher was a good Italian friend and colleague – Angelo from Como. The main reason for my italo-interest was the Italian poet/artist/director/aka multi-talent Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1975).  Angelo knew a lot of Pasolini’s poetry.  Pasolini opened up new horizons.  Especially during the years I lived for longer periods in Trieste.  This marvellous austro-italian habsburgian city is not too far from Pasolini’s birthplace Casarsa;  it’s in the same region –  Friuli. The visits to Pasolini’s hometown Casarsa made a deep impression on me. From Casarsa he had to escape in a hurry to Rome.  I wrote once about a visit to Casarsa. in the Norwegian cultural review Syn og Segn (click the photo below).   There I met Pasolini’s old neighbors and  friends: Mario and Mario. All this came to my mind when I recently visited the amazing Pasolini Roma exhibition at Gropius Bau in Berlin.  It was almost like being back there – in Casarsa.  But only almost. A deep and moving exhibition. It will run till january 4th 2015.

And this is Mario Benvenuti. One of Pasolini’s childhood friends whom I met in Casarsa in 2002. Click (and click again) and read the whole reportage. Photo: Nicholas Møllerhaug