The wife of the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi wants to divorce her husband. According to the Italian press, Veronica Lario is furious with Berlusconi because he attended the birthday party of 18-year old blonde model Noemi, while he fails to be present at his own children's birthdays.

Their matrimony had already come under severe pressure because of the so-called 'Veline-affair'. Veline are mostly blonde, attractive women that –scantily clad and smiling incessantly - appear on Italian television standing next to the presenter. For the European elections, Berlusconi intended to put a number of veline on his party's election list. This attempt to attract votes with politically inexperienced women did not only upset Lario, but ruffled Berlusconi's own party as well. In his counter attack, Berlusconi called the reporting on the subject acts of 'media criminality'.

Storie di Napoli is based on news facts from in and around Naples. Designers Ben Laloua/Didier Pascal, invited by guest curator Patricia Pulles of the Museum Madre, explored the tension field that lies between the reality of this South-Italian city and its representation in the mass media. The photographs and stories found in the city inspired Hans Aarsman to write three fiction stories about Noemi Letizia, Salvatore Russo and the novel Ho voglia di te.

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