“… BUT I’M ALIVE”
Voices from Ukraine

Guided tour duration: 60 minutes

Curated by the associations “Amici di Emmaus” and “Frontiere di Pace”

The exhibition recounts the experience of the Ukrainian people who live the war on a daily basis, inviting visitors to empathize in the way Pope Francis urged when he insisted that we must “touch the flesh of those who suffer.” The goal is to create a space to stand before the reality of what is happening to people and how they are living through it. Looking at reality is essential in order to understand and to take responsibility.
The Ukrainian people’s resistance testifies to a powerful choice in favor of life. Countless stories show how injustice and suffering are transformed into a force for good that makes it possible to always begin rebuilding. Shared suffering has united people, making them more aware of their identity and of the values of freedom and human dignity.
Through the testimonies of the protagonists, windows are opened onto themes such as the deeper meaning of human suffering, evil, and what is worth giving one’s life for.
The exhibition aims to be a witness to life: a thirst for life, for a life that never ends. Living is much more than merely surviving.
The protagonists offer attempts at answers in various areas: culture, economy, civil society, volunteer work, support for vulnerable people, commitment to human rights, and education. We see men and women who remain human, resisting hell, and shedding light on the value of the Cross as a symbol of victory over death and a foundation of hope.

The exhibition seeks to highlight the challenge posed by Fr. Luigi Giussani quoting Italo Calvino: “Hell is already here. There are two ways not to suffer from it. The first is to accept hell and become part of it to the point that you no longer see it. The second is risky and demands constant attention and learning: to seek and to know how to recognize who and what, in the midst of hell, is not hell, and to make it endure.” Fr. Giussani comments:“Not an abstract idea, but a Father, a Mother, a Friend: Emmanuel, God with us. Even in the daily darkness, let us rediscover what endures and brings light, what breaks through habit and resignation.”

The exhibition draws upon the theme of Christ’s descent into hell, who, by descending again and again into the hell of human life, continues every day to bring light into the darkness of the world, to bring life into the shadow of death.
This is the ultimate symbolic key of the exhibition: the recurring presence of the Paschal mystery today.

With the support of Zanetti Arturo SRL