“LETTERS FROM PRISON ” – ART.17
“LETTERS FROM PRISON ”
The Prisons of Civitavecchia, are a medium and maximun security prisons north of Rome, one is located in a nineteenth century building, built by Pope Pius IX and the other is inside a huge structure of cement, close to the highways. This project was born with the intention to involving the inmates of the Prisons of Civitavecchia, in the realization of a photographic exhibition and a book. The selection of the images i’ve choosed is mainly focused on moments of daily life, personal diaries, experiences , places , portraits and landscapes. The idea is bringing art in those particoular spaces, our conviction is that the beauty is an oppotunity to generate reflections, create reports and trigger positive reactions, and that, in this case, can help break the negative chain in the spectators of the exhibithion and the book, contributing to the re-educational function and humanizing their sentences. The pictures will be hanged on the walls forever inside the rooms where the inmates talks wih their families. The contriboutors are 40 international photographers who have donated their portfolios , their images will be selected and interpretated by the prisoners themselves, through meetings and talking about their personal stories about what they see in these pictures and through their thoughts and letters. The inmates, in fact, will be encouraged to get in touch with their emotions, with their reactions. They will be invited to chose 10 photos and writing their intimates and personal stories, true stories or just imaginations, expressing the feelings about these photos. The transition from the images to the written words aims to offer participants the use of this medium as a vehicle of expression, to leave a trace, and to communicate with the outside. It is very Important for prisoners to understand the potential that art and writing are in the process of rediscovering the person’s being, beyond the deviant aspects, bringing to the surface features and other aspects of the self. The results of this project will be published in a book, which will give detainees tangible proof of the usefulness of this experience. “Art has always been considered a window to the world, a chance to offer the viewer a vision, subjective, but potentially universal reality. The emotional power of photography in its multiple manifestations can create deep reflection as well as to stimulate operational.”
The photographers : Adam Cohen ,Arja Hyytiäinen, Angelo Turetta, Lorenzo Castore ,Guido Gazzilli, Massimo Nicolaci, Lele Saveri, Veronica D’Altri, , Federica Valabrega, Marcello Fauci, Lavinia Parlamenti, Stephane Carpienter ,Gianfranco Gallucci ,Andrea Campesi, Lina Pallotta, Peppe Tortora, Igor Pisuk ,Cato Lein, Jannis Tordheim, Alexander Arnild, Magdalena Switek, Ilias Georgiadis, Zoe Zipela, Gilda Louise Aloisi, Cristina Vatielli, Anna Faragona ,Pierluigi Amato, Pamela Piscicelli, Paolo Cenciarelli, Yulia Kazban, Damien Daufresne, Fabiene Pio, Gabrielle Duplantier, Gael Bonnefon, Daniel Hofllund., Eduardo Castaldo, Roberta Stein, Elia Buonora.
The prisoners portrayed by Guido Gazzilli:
Behind the scenes with the detainees while working on this project:
Their Stories:
The installation of the first exhibition :
The project is curated by Guido Gazzilli.
Thank you so much to the photographers who believed in this project, thank you also to Silvia Marsano and Roberta Pucci of Fondazione Volume !thank you to our writer MR. Dario D’Amato.
A special thanks to Dr. Iole Calvigioni , Dr. Alessia Giuliani and the director of the prison for believing in this project and making it happen.
G.
all photographs copyrighted © Guido Gazzilli
