“I occupy a small space in the world, but I have not marked its boundaries.” (Altiero Spinelli)
An exhibition project created in the context of the Project for the restoration of the Bourbon prison of Santo Stefano/Ventotene, coordinated by the Extraordinary Government Commissioner Silvia Costa, conceived and organised by the Cultural Institutes of the EU countries in Italy (EUNIC-Cluster Rome) and the Istituto Centrale per il Restauro, with the support of the Representation of the European Commission in Italy and in collaboration with the Historical Archives of the European Union in Florence and the Ministry of Justice.
The exhibition will be held from 12 November to 10 December at the monumental complex of San Michele a Ripa, the former women’s prison of San Michele, now the headquarters of the Istituto Centrale per il Restauro.
They are young. They occupy a small space in this world, of freedom, of hope, of “high thoughts”. And some of them are prisoners. This exhibition is dedicated to them, to freedom as seen from prison and in the light of art. The initiative was created to give voice through art to the dreams of young juvenile prisoners by linking their thoughts to the reflections on freedom and the dignity of punishment by the founding fathers of Europe.
Supported by the Representation Office of the European Commission in Italy and promoted by the Extraordinary Commissioner for the restoration of the Bourbon prison of Santo Stefano/Ventotene, Silvia Costa, the artistic project involves the collaboration of the diplomatic representations of seven European countries: Bulgaria, Flanders, Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Turkey, of the EUNIC cluster. Cecilia Casorati, Director of the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, is the artistic coordinator, while the curation of the exhibition has been entrusted to Dispositivi Comunicanti, a curatorial collective made up of students and former students of the Academy itself.
Twelve European artists are involved, invited to participate by the promoting institutions, which urged them to interpret with their artistic works some of the concepts underlying the European Union: freedom, unity, memory, community and equality. And it was precisely starting from the word freedom that desires, dreams and aspirations were evoked by some young inmates of the Casal del Marmo Juvenile Prison in Rome, who took part in a creative writing workshop led by the actor Salvatore Striano, carried out in collaboration with the Department of Juvenile Justice of the Ministry of Justice in the first months of the year. The texts produced were then entrusted through the Cultural Institutes to the graduates of the Academies of Fine Arts of the six European countries (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Flanders, Poland, Slovakia, Turkey) who created, starting from the reinterpretation, artistic works of great value, linked together by a symbolic element: the size of the prison cells.
Other words on freedom, expressed by precursors of the European Union such as Altiero Spinelli, Henri Frenay, Simone Weil, Eugen Kogon, Otto Molden and others, selected from the Historical Archives of the European Union in Florence, were the inspiration for the work of six graduates of the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, who used them as a starting point for the creation of as many works in the exhibition.
A new key to storytelling capable of highlighting the importance of freedom, starting precisely from those contexts in which it is denied, and which, by combining sensitivity with hope, manages to spread an emotional message of great impact thanks to the work of the young artists, united by the vision of a Europe based on rights and the dignity of punishment.
Artists involved: Lieze De Middeleir, Lena Demirhan, Giorgia Errera, Weronika Guenther, Martin Jurik, Katerina Kuchtova, Marianna Panagiotoudi, Karina Popova, Ilaria Restivo, Maria Giovanna Sodero, Valerio Tirapani, Laura Zawada
Institutions involved: Representation in Italy of the European Commission, Extraordinary Government Commissioner for the Restoration and Development of the former Bourbon Prison on the Island of Santo Stefano-Ventotene, EUNIC (European Union National Institutes for Culture) Rome: Czech Centre in Rome, Bulgarian Institute of Culture in Rome, Polish Institute in Rome, Slovak Institute in Rome, Yunus Emre Institute Turkish Cultural Centre in Rome, General Representation of the Flemish Community and the Region of Flanders in Italy, Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, Historical Archives of the European Union, European Library, Istituto Centrale per il Restauro, Casal del Marmo Male and Female Juvenile Penal Institute, Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Justice, Società Dante Alighieri
Curatorship and exhibition design: Dispositivi Comunicanti