CLAUDIO TADIOTTO
GIOVANNI SCIFONI
CARLO STEINER
DINO QUARTANA
DANIELE MENCARELLI
LUCA GASTALDO
BEATRIZ ZEROLO
MAURIZIO CARUGNO
CONSTANZA LOPEZ
LARA LEONARDI
MARIE MICHÈLE PONCET
MARCELO CESENA
MARINA LORUSSO
MATTEO NEGRI
Avvolti da una luce piena di vita, 2022
Fotografia in bianco e nero
CLAUDIO TADIOTTO
Sorrounded by a light full of life, 2022
Black and white photograph
«What really stood out to me was the ease in their company, the joy I saw in their holding hands, the feeling of freedom and mutual trust they radiated. And all of this took place under a sky embroidered with clouds that were playing tag with one another, while rays of sunshine filtered in through them. »
«Taking a photograph of a person means trying to depict their humanity in its complexity. For this reason, the most important thing to do is getting to truly meet them. »
«To stay in company, in an ordinary sun-kissed afternoon, merrily walking along the shore as if going towards the fulfilment of their existence. »
Non siamo nati interi, 2022
GIOVANNI SCIFONI
We were not born whole, 2022
«We were not born whole, none is sufficient to themselves, we all need to come to terms with otherness.»
«This otherness is not a nameless energy, it’s not ethereal, it’s not spiritualism: it has a Father’s face, it’s someone who loves us. This love is highest expression is hospitality: we learn how to make others feel welcome because Someone made us feel the same first.»
«Those who embrace hospitality in their lives lead a more “imbalanced” life that turns out to be much richer and more surprising, constantly renewed. »
Spore, Dima 13, 2021
Spore fungine su vetro
CARLO STEINER
«From those hours I spent in the forest with the families and from the conversation with them, I got the impression of struggle and sacrifice, and courage too. It’s the struggle that lives with those who see their children grow up. Nobody can take it from you, but some may share it.»
«The cross is unavoidable, but it’s not synonym of conviction, it’s a narrow door to a new beginning. Even for those fathers and mothers who have walked with me in the forest, that afternoon, fostering or adopting a child has meant difficulties and sacrifices. Nonetheless, their friendship with other families accompanies them every day and makes them experience God’s friendship. This is the kind of company I aspire to as well. »
Famiglia, 2000, Bronzo
L’enfant roi, 2000, Ferro saldato
Accoglienza, 2022, Ferro saldato
DINO QUARTANA
Family, 2000, Bronze
L’enfant roi (The child King), 2000, welded iron
Hospitality, 2022, welded iron
«To me, they have been and continue to be special witnesses – role-models in some sense – of otherness and of gratuitousness, an experience that every individual recognizes as profoundly human and desirable»
«This is what human life ultimately comes to: the everlasting tension between the risk of shutting oneself away and the pursuit of freedom. »
«For these works I chose to use iron, a material that helps to express gravity and breakage, but also allows the creation of spaces/voids that lighten the sculpture and suggest the idea of somewhere beyond, of the need for freedom and fulfilment. »
I bambini vengono per primi, 2022
DANIELE MENCARELLI
Children come first, 2022
«It is necessary to recognize and accept that there is an energy that comes first. Without it the willingness of the beginning is inevitably bound to run out. Grace – how Christians call it – is essential; however, without us, without our “yes”, Grace cannot become a generating source. »
«Being aware of our inadequacy is what makes us alert and waiting for someone or something that can make us, and our inadequacy, feel accepted. This is the human attitude I saw at work when I first met Families for Welcoming and it’s what I treasure most. Our humanity needs to be nourished by an “ever-happening” love, that is present in the moment. We cannot settle for a past participle. »
«Solo colui che ha provato l’estremo dolore è atto a gustare la più grande felicità»
2021, Olio su tela
LUCA GASTALDO
«Only the one who has suffered the ultimate pain is apt to enjoy the greatest happiness»,
2021, oil on canvas
«It is difficult to maintain a deep awareness in life. But that is the circumstance in which you realize that you need a point of light in your life. Without it, your humanity would end up suffocated, crushed and shattered. »
«I try to depict what it’s like to let reality wound you, to come to terms with your limit, to face difficulties, but also perceiving that darkness doesn’t win, in the end. There is light that brightens up the horizon. There is a point of hope to which you can hold on to continue your journey. »
Origine, 2022
Pittura con pigmento a olio e corda
BEATRIZ ZEROLO
Origin, 2022
Painting with oil-pigments and rope
«It really gets me to see how they embrace the circumstances – even harsh and difficult, at times – that come at their door. And it’s surprising to observe that this embrace has gradually contaminated many other families. A beneficial virus has got into other homes and has contributed to weaving together bonds based on fraternity, like the roots of a more human society. »
«This cannot be originated only by a natural predisposition to hospitality or a person’s character. Something else is essential: to meet a point of light, a source of goodness. I tried to study this origin and to depict it on my canvas. »
Spanish Suite
Composizione musicale di Alberto Viganò, 2006 (ricreata 2022)
Sax e basso-chitarra
MAURIZIO CARUGNO
Spanish Suite
Musical Composition of Alberto Viganò, 2006 (recreated in 2022)
Saxophone and bass guitar
«Love for the other’s destiny, for their freedom and their diversity, can imply the sacrifice of taking a step back, similarly to what happens playing jazz music, when you are challenged to follow others. »
«Unexpected situations can become surprising challenges for creativity, if not considered as elements of disturbance or mistakes. »
«I met people who live unforeseen circumstances as an opportunity and not as a bother. They help each other to see in every circumstance a positive chance. »
Legami di tenerezza, 2022
Colori acrilici su tela
CONSTANZA LOPEZ
Bonds of tenderness, 2022
Acrylic paint on canvas
«When I encounter people who let God love them and make of gratuitousness their lifestyle, I’m utterly fascinated by them, and I can’t help thinking: why have they crossed my path? Maybe God is asking me to live in the same way. »
«They leave you speechless because they say that “the only thing our children ask is to feel loved, we look at them the way God does with us.” »
«God attracts us to Him with an embrace full of tenderness, strong and gentle at the same time, that leaves us the freedom of giving in to the embrace. Those who welcome a child in their home need this openness of heart, that is the opposite of possession. »
«Légami!», 2022
Olio su tela, cemento, stoffa
LARA LEONARD
«Bind me!», 2022, oil on canvas, cement, fabric
Narrator: Gianfrango Lauretano, Daughter
Music: Marcus Bostik, «Bind me!», ballad
«In that house I found a renewed humanity, from which the artistic streak started flourishing again. It was something that moved me deeply. »
«It can be considered a choral artwork. It involves many faces, both behind and in the painting. These are the faces of the companions of my journey, that were unexpected as much as needed in the intriguing adventure of a new beginning. »
«I feel like the daughter of a Father that through those people’s faces came to look for me, that embraced my vulnerability making it fruitful, and that gave again light to an existence that was just about to get lost in the darkness. »
«Al calvario», 2020, Bronzo
Piccolo incontro nel giardino, 1996, Bronzo
L’attesa, 2022, Bronzo
MARIE MICHÈLE PONCET
«To Calvary», 2020, Bronze
Small meeting in the garden, 1996, Bronze
The wait, 2022, Bronze
«What I need, what we all need, is finding people like these, witnesses in whom we observe that this impossible connection comes true. »
«Pain and death are transfigured by an experience of rebirth that comes from above and showers them with a purpose.»
«Hospitality always lives in a mutual exchange. »
«That space is not secluded or vague. It’s a reality that flourishes in the relationship between the two figures, it’s a place that reminds of the past wait. »
La nota dominante, 2022
Preludio per pianoforte
MARCELO CESENA
The dominant note, 2022
Prelude for piano
«Something that moves our heart and that wounds us is essential. Art, and especially music, transforms our gaze, helping us to recognize the beauty that is present but often invisible to the eye. An artist too needs to live this experience, to be tocado. »
«Everything begins from B, the dominant note in the piece, that reminds us of the prevailing words in those families that say “Be it done” and decide to accept God’s will. »
«The final note is F of Father, that together with the B of our “Be it done”, forms a bond of love. »
Il dono di un avvenimento, 2022
Fotografia in bianco e nero
MARINA LORUSSO
The gift of an occurrence, 2022
Black and white picture
«I’ve learned that hospitality comes from a deep involvement with the present, and that it can be preserved in time if that involvement keeps happening. It’s like an origin that asks to be continuously relived. »
«Little Andrei seems to be challenging the entire world with his gaze, already exploring the distant horizon. The mother welcomes, the father protects, the son does not fear. »
«While they were telling me their story, I observed them, and I perceived that they regarded as a life-changing gift the encounter they had had with him and that I too was experiencing in that moment. »
«(Approssimativamente) Mille stelle e oltre», 2022
Installazione ambientale
Estruso cristal Pvc,
pellicole adesive e luce artificiale
MATTEO NEGRI
«(Approximately) a thousand stars and more», 2022
Installation
Crystal PVC extrusion, adhesive films, and artificial light
«Wounds and vulnerability are undeniable, but they are accepted in a merciful embrace. They find their sense of being and the chance of new beginning. They become signs of a new birth. Light brightens the darkness of struggle, showing an escape path that makes it possible to live with the certainty that the final word on life is not death’s but resurrection’s. »
«I wanted to suggest an immersion in a space in which cuts (wounds) live together with light, that contributes a sense of sublimation and elevation to the whole. »
«”A thousand stars” evokes the people that have been welcomed into families, a mix of life stories and variables full of human richness and of new light. »
