The work of one of Italy’s greatest scholars focused on ordinary lives oppressed by power and prejudice. That approach resonates today
Reflecting on the genesis of his most famous work, Carlo Ginzburg wrote that by immersing himself in the trial of a 16th-century miller burned by the Roman Inquisition, he turned a possible footnote into a book. Fifty years on, after being translated around the world, The Cheese and The Worms still stands as a supreme exemplar of historical research devoted to the lives of “the persecuted and the vanquished”.
Ginzburg’s death last week, at the age of 87, means that one of the last living links with a remarkable postwar generation of historians has gone. In its passion for reconstructing the fabric of lives previously thought too marginal to bother with, his writing had affinities with EP Thompson’s “history from below” movement and the Annales school in France. As the rise of 21st-century authoritarianism creates new generations of scapegoats and misfits, the approach of one of Italy’s greatest scholars speaks directly to our times.
Just two days before his 39th birthday, Messi eclipsed Miroslav Klose’s men’s record of 16 goals, which had stood since 2014, clinically firing home during the first half against their Group J opponents in Dallas.
Unions condemn ‘insensitive’ internal cybersecurity test sent to healthcare workers in Newfoundland and Labrador
For years, healthcare staff in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador have felt overworked and under-appreciated. Turnover, burnout and thinning resources were pushing workers in the sector to a breaking point.
So when the email titled “June Holiday” arrived in thousands of inboxes, they felt a moment of overdue joy.
Aanstaande vrijdag presenteert het kabinet de langverwachte plannen om stikstofuitstoot te verminderen. Eenvoudig is dat niet: sommige veehouders proberen dat al jaren. Op bezoek bij een boerin in Montfoort die overschakelt op biologische landbouw.
De Franse premier Sébastien Lecornu overlegt dinsdagochtend met betrokken ministers over de gevolgen van de ernstige hittegolf. Voor een groot deel van het land is vanwege de hitte code rood van kracht.
Volgens de weerdienst Météo-France is maandag een nieuw record vastgesteld voor de gemiddelde temperatuur in juni. Dat is 29,2 graden en iets warmer dan het oude record van 30 juni 2025. In veel plaatsen zijn records gemeten. Zo werd het in Bordeaux 41,9 graden.
We schakelen over naar Amerika, waar gekte veel meer dan hier wordt gewaardeerd, gecultiveerd en zelfs gevierd. Schitterend spitwerk van de Washington Post, die op basis van 25 duizend documenten concludeert dat voormalig congreslid en ex-directeur van de nationale inlichtingendienst onder Trump Tulsi Gabbard zich jarenlang liet voorschrijven wat te vinden, doen en zeggen door een hindoeïstische sekteleider. Gabbard was ooit een Bernie Sanders-Democraat en is inmiddels een MAGA-Republikein, die onlangs dus afzwaaide als spionnenbons. Daarnaast is ze dus knettergek. Mooi moetleesspul hier.
Bij de Brouwersdam in Ouddorp is maandagmiddag een Duitse toerist overleden. De persoon werd, in nood, uit het water gehaald door een omstander en gereanimeerd. Helaas mocht de reanimatie niet baten.
Whether it’s a large-scale wallpaper reproduction of Sandro Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus” or pages of deconstructed Artforum magazines, David Daigle’s detailed punch-cut compositions delve into the material and conceptual possibilities of layers, depth, and what is revealed or concealed.
Daigle’s forthcoming exhibition, The Death of Beauty at Track 16, investigates intersections of identity, consumer culture, and desire through a kind of sedimentary approach to commercial imagery, which he excavates with precise holes each revealing tiny tableaux. This method of décollage, which involves building up the surface and then removing elements, literally peels away the meanings and intentions behind contemporary visual culture.
Detail of “The Death of Venus”
“The Birth of Venus” serves as the foundational composition for Daigle’s “The Death of Venus,” which has been completely overwhelmed by the artist’s hole-punched interventions. Tiny vignettes of people, things, and colorful dots completely erase and replace the titular figure. The masterpiece of 15th-century art has been reduced to an inexpensive, mass-market object for home decor and is further disarticulated by a sea of anonymous eyes and mouths. What could be more symbolic of our era of ultra consumerism?
Daigle digs into a wide array of photographs and printed media, from bus shelter advertisements to a panoramic photograph of Gaza taken around 2020, in which almost all of the buildings have been subsumed under the cratered surface. It’s symbolic of the real devastation the city has experienced since the war began in late 2023. In a broader sense, the artist’s works reveal something akin to a visualization of the media’s often obscured undercurrent.
“I am interested in sublimating technical images designed to generate desire,” the artist says. “Through the subversive act of perforation, I search for the meanings trapped behind them. I want to see past the imagery, through the photograph itself, and ask whether media can become so untruthful that it ultimately consumes both itself and us.”
The Death of Beauty opens on July 18 and continues through September 5 in East Hollywood. In the meantime, explore more on the artist’s Instagram.
“Gaza City” (2026), archival pigment print of Gaza City c. 2020 with layers of book pages relating to peace in the Middle East, 24 x 60 inchesDetail of “Gaza City”Detail of “Gaza City”“Beige” (2026), archival pigment print with Artforum magazines, 22 x 24 inches“Sinead O’Connor (Herb Ritts Photo)” (2026), Herb Ritts photo and Vogue magazine with punch-cut holes, 10 x 8 inchesDetail of “The Death of Venus”Detail of “The Death of Venus”
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