Stefania Trivellini – The Fish Market: A Story of Fish and Wind

Wholesalers, restaurant owners, and professionals are seated in the bleachers in the amphitheater of the fish market in Mandracchio. And behind the scenes: the others – the women, the mothers, the wives, the daughters.

In Ancona, the fish market has the face, intellect, and passion of a woman. The names of their boats are written in marker on the chairs where they sit – Ram, Tirpiz, Ulder, Gladiator, the Scarlet Pimpernel… Every night those white and red chairs welcome the long, freezing hours of loading and unloading, the feverish moments of the auction. Surrounding all: wet, cold, raised voices, the long wait. The fishing women are pillars on solid land, their men are columns out at sea, and together they form the architrave of a tradition that is constantly renewed in its quality and perseverance, in the ritual of seafaring and in the confident expectation on the wharf.

Text: Cristiana Colli