»small planets« is a discovery to remote places, of which you wouldn´t believe exist at all. They are located in Spain, Italy, Iceland, Spitsbergen and Naples. Right in the middle and yet outside, they are exemplary of a life behind invisible walls. They raise questions. Which walls do separate the ones from the others? What is the impact on those people experiencing it, and who’s in and who’s out?
The 3.5 km ² island of Grimsey lies 41 kilometers off the main island of Iceland, in the middle of the harsh Greenland Sea. It is inhabited by scarcely 100 residents. The main source of income is fishing. There is neither a doctor nor a priest. If the children want to attend a higher school, they must leave the island and move to the main island at an age of 12.
Well hidden behind steep mountain ridges, surrounded by a wall three miles long and three meters high, lies the Leprosy Sanatorium San Francisco de Borja, barely 20 kilometers away from the spanish holiday beaches of the Costa Blanca. In the leprosy sanatorium, that was originally designed for 400 patients, 62 former patients are still alive today.
At the archipelago of Spitzbergen, only 1.231 km from the North Pole, there is one of the most northern human settlements of the world: Ny-Ålesund. The location houses the „biggest laboratory of the modern Arctic research“; it can only be reached by ship during the ice free period or by plane. Just a handful of people are organizing the life and the work of polar researchers on the german-french research station AWIPEV throughout the year.
“Io non ti tocco, tu non mi Tocchi” (“I will not touch you and you don´t touch me “), is the motto of italies largest Sri-Lankan community in Naples. Narrow streets and alleys, crammed with people, Sinhalese characters on the walls, deafening noise. Around 7,000 Sinhalese live in the “Vicolo Francesco Correra,” right in the middle of the historic center of Naples. This aera of Naples is known as “il Cavone” (“the big cave”), characterized by great poverty. Naples, the unofficial capital of the Camorra is infamous for its high crime rate. Seemingly unimpressed by these circumstances, the Sinhalese have created their own little Sri Lanka. Strong cultural barriers protect themselves and their children from the negative influences of their environment.
