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Italy’s ‘Golden Waves’ art project promotes solidarity for migrants

  • February 09, 2019

Many Italians are appalled by their government’s stance towards migrants, particularly the recent decision to prohibit 47 migrants on board the nongovernmental organization ship Sea Watch from disembarking.

Last weekend, numerous municipalities staged peaceful protests by inviting citizens to join hands in a circle around their local town halls in a giant symbolic embrace: a gesture of solidarity for migrants.

This weekend in the village of Pianoro, just outside the city of Bologna, another public protest, this time artistic, is underway. Saturday mornings usually mean farmers’ market in the main square but this Saturday locals are waking up to a golden surprise.

Pushing back against ‘a loss of humanity’

Artist Mili Romano is a professor at Bologna’s Academy of Fine Arts. She’s also a much-loved member of the small community of Pianoro, where the works she’s curated can be found dotted throughout the local streets, parks and piazzas. An expert in public art and anthropology, her energy is as big as her smile. But right now she’s angry. Very angry.

“Not only this government but I think everywhere in the world we can see a loss of humanity, a loss of heart,” said Mili. “There is only brain, rationale, economics, abstract relationships through the web.”

Read more:Italian mayors rebel against Salvini migrant laws

Over the past two years, Mili’s been running art projects bringing migrants housed in the municipality together with students from the art academy and the local secondary school.

“In these two years, living and sharing a lot of time with these immigrants, I knew a lot of them,” she said, adding that a friendship grew “between me and them, between them and the students at school.”

Italien Golden Waves art show in Pianoro (Marco Mensa/Ethnos)

Mili runs art projects that brings together migrants living in Pianoro with students

Action through art

And that’s how the idea began. The original plan was to put on a public exhibition of the fruits of their intercultural artwork this weekend. But with Mili’s increasing fury at what she calls the new government’s political cruelty, that plan changed.

“I decided that it was time to do something, not to accept, and I think that art must be used in order to stimulate, to push people to think, and not only as a representation of things,” Mili said.

Mili’s idea was to create a powerfully symbolic installation as a gesture of dissent and condemnation: a plea for solidarity. Something that all the citizens would see and immediately understand.

“And I thought about an action that could involve. An action to share with the town hall and mayor — to put at all the windows of the town hall gold thermal blankets that are those blankets around which migrants are wrapped during difficult sea rescue procedures,” she said.

Read more: ‘Human Cargo:’ Refugees deal with trauma through art

The town hall is located at the top of a flight of steps: a large rectangular building with 25 windows overlooking the piazza. Mili would call the work Onde Dorate – Golden Waves. Locals out and about on a Saturday morning couldn’t fail to notice such a glaring, daring statement. The question was, would the municipal council agree to display such a politically charged piece of art?

“When I proposed such a kind of action I imagined that they [would say] ‘you are crazy! It’s not possible to do such a kind of thing, what are you proposing?'” Mili said. “And they immediately said ‘Aaaaaah! It’s very strong, it’s fantastic, we like, and we can do it.’ And I couldn’t believe my ears.”

Italien Golden Waves art show in Pianoro (Marco Mensa/Ethnos)

Officials in Pianoro threw their support behind the Golden Waves project

Building compassion

“For us as a municipality it signifies taking an official stance,” said Benedetta Rossi, Pianoro’s councilor for culture, equal opportunities and human rights. “Through this action we are declaring our own opinion that it’s important to maintain a humane dimension. We believe in preserving the will to look after people, whoever they are, because in doing so we become more compassionate. As soon as we start to forget this, we start to lose part of our humanity, and we don’t want our community to regress like that.”

Locals like Eritrean Luwam Yemane are particularly touched by the action. Luwam’s brother made the dangerous trip from Libya across the Mediterranean in 2015.

Read more: Italy: Seaside getaway turns into dumping ground for migrants

“He arrived in Calabria and was overjoyed to be greeted by kind, lovely, compassionate people,” said Luwam. “He told me they actually gave him two of those thermal blankets because he was dressed very lightly. He had nothing at all, having lost everything after being captured at sea the first time he tried to cross. He was wearing someone else’s T-shirt and then those blankets. So I’m very happy to see them and I think it’s right to use them symbolically.”

Over the past few days, Mili’s also been distributing some thermal blankets to locals and inviting them to fold them in half and hang them out of their own windows. Easy to buy from pharmacies, she’s hoping her political-artistic message will go viral.

“It’s an invitation to everybody to share this action as big gold waves that become larger and larger and larger like music or like light,” she said.

And the deputy mayor of Pianoro, Franca Filippini, hopes other institutions will follow their example. “I hope it’s a wave that will catch the wind and there’ll be lots who’ll copy us,” she said.

  • A view of Castel Volturno, Italy (DW/V. Muscella)

    Migrant life in Italian dystopia

    From dream to dystopia

    Conceived in the 1960s as a seaside town for the Neapolitan middle class, Castel Volturno, which stretches 27 kilometers (17 miles) along the Mediterranean, grew without any urban planning. In 1980, it became a shelter for people made homeless by an earthquake in nearby Irpinia. Subsequently tourists turned to other sea spots, and the local economy crumbled. Nowadays 30,000 rooms stand empty.

  • A man walks in the front of the house where he lives in Castel Volturno, Italy (DW/V. Muscella)

    Migrant life in Italian dystopia

    A place called home

    Castel Volturno is home to about 40,000 people. Many came from sub-Saharan Africa, mostly Nigeria and Ghana. The immigrant presence dates back to the 1980s, when Africans filled the demand for manual labor in the tomato fields.

  • An African hair salon in Castel Volturno, Italy (DW/V. Muscella)

    Migrant life in Italian dystopia

    Setting up a new economy

    Ester has a talent for hairdressing and makeup, so she recently opened her own salon. Due to the lack of services and economic opportunities, the African communities created their own economy, relying mainly on small shops, restaurants and mobile phone stores.

  • Israel poses for a portrait in a backyard draped with a clothesline, Castel Volturno, Italy (DW/V. Muscella)

    Migrant life in Italian dystopia

    ‘I have what it takes, but I am still begging’

    Israel, from Nigeria, was rejected for numerous jobs due to lack of papers. After several times back and forth to the refugee commission, he was finally granted asylum until 2021. Even so, he remains unemployed. He ended up in Castel Volturno after looking for a cheap place to live.

  • A plaque commemorates migrants killed by a local mafia in Castel Volturno, Italy (DW/V. Muscella)

    Migrant life in Italian dystopia

    Organized crime territory

    This area has always proved fertile for the expansion of criminal organizations from the nearby cities of Naples and Caserta. On September 18, 2008, the powerful Casalesi clan shot dead six African migrants to affirm their control over the area. The victims were chosen randomly and had no connection to drug dealing, one of the crime organization’s businesses.

  • A connection house is seen from outside, Castel Volturno, Italy (DW/V. Muscella)

    Migrant life in Italian dystopia

    Connection houses

    Connection houses are private apartments that function as restaurants, places to gather and also brothels. African men come here to have a drink, smoke and, if they wish, have sex with prostitutes. Older Nigerian women tend to run them.

  • J. poses for a portrait, Castel Volturno, Italy (DW/V. Muscella)

    Migrant life in Italian dystopia

    Dreams don’t come true

    J., 26, from Delta State in Nigeria arrived in Italy a year ago. Her dream was to complete her education in Italy, but she ended up working in a connection house in Castel Volturno. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), 11,000 Nigerian women arrived on Italian shores in 2016. The number fell to 5,425 in 2017, but they remain among the top nationalities to reach Italy.

  • A Nigerian pastor celebrates mass, Castel Volturno, Italy (DW/V. Muscella)

    Migrant life in Italian dystopia

    ‘Somebody shouts hallejah’

    The last 20 years have seen a surge in the number of Pentecostal churches, most of which can be found in abandoned and run-down buildings. These days, there are around 30 churches in the Castel Volturno area.

  • A healing session in a Pentecostal church, Castel Volturno, Italy (DW/V. Muscella)

    Migrant life in Italian dystopia

    ‘Only God will help us’

    Pastors celebrate in a mixture of English and Italian dialect and undertake all sorts of cures, including healings and exorcisms.

  • B. poses for a portrait in a tailor's workshop in Castel Volturno, Italy (DW/V. Muscella)

    Migrant life in Italian dystopia

    New hope

    B. was trafficked to Castel Volturno in 2004. She sought help from the New Hope charity in Caserta, which provides trafficking victims with education and vocational training as tailors. Today she is a happily married and the mother of two.

  • Teenagers play basketball in Castel Volturno, Italy (DW/V. Muscella)

    Migrant life in Italian dystopia

    Second-generation chases opportunity

    Former player Massimo Antonelli founded TAM TAM Basketball as a tool of integration in a place with few facilities and social activities for adolescents. At the end of 2017, the team launched a campaign to play in the official Italian league. Parliament then passed a bill changing sporting regulations, so that all children born in Italy to immigrant parents are allowed to compete.

  • Two teenagers gaze at the sea, Castel Volturno, Italy (DW/V. Muscella)

    Migrant life in Italian dystopia

    Dreaming of the future

    Victor, 14, and Fabian, 12, have both grown up in Castel Volturno, raised by Nigerian families. Despite the many problems of their hometown, they regard it as a beautiful place. Both want to become professional basketball players, but Victor also has a flair for electronics and logistics. “I would move from here. It’s nice, but there are no jobs at all,” he says.

    Author: Valerio Muscella (Castel Volturno, Italy)


Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/italy-s-golden-waves-art-project-promotes-solidarity-for-migrants/a-47441199?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf

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