"This exhibition reminds us that those who arrive as migrants do not come with empty hands, they bring culture, humanity, stories, hopes. The world needs an intercultural encounter and strangers everywhere - this year's title of the Biennale - must develop into brothers and sisters everywhere".
Thus, Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, Prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education and Director of the Holy See Pavilion at the 60th Biennale, spoke at the opening of the exhibition Naufragi - Approdi (Wrecks - Landings) by the Italian-Brazilian artist César Meneghetti and the Art Workshops of the Community of Sant'Egidio, The exhibition was set up in the splendid Gothic porticoed atrium of the Ca' d'Oro on the Grand Canal. The curator, Professor Alessandro Zuccari, explained that the exhibition "arose from the reflections that groups of artists with disabilities developed and shared with Meneghetti on migrant journeys, and the tragedy of the many who lost their lives trying to reach Europe: names, stories, figures".
3,129 children and adults, fleeing from wars, poverty and climatic emergencies, have lost their lives in the Mediterranean and along the Balkan route, and so, to pay homage to their memory, 3,129 fragile paper boats have been displayed on the floor of the Ca' d'Oro.
"In the video installation I have created," Meneghetti went on to explain, "the names of the 240 migrants that Sant'Egidio has pitifully saved from oblivion, flow on a digital sea. Yet we do not forget all those who have remained without an identity.
Brazil's ambassador to Italy Renato Mosca De Souza, the general director of the Veneto Museums Daniele Ferrara and the director of the Giorgio Franchetti Gallery at Ca' d'Oro Claudia Cremonini were also present at the inauguration. The exhibition is now open every day except Monday, from 10am to 7pm until 15 September.
(Source ANSA, translated by editorial staff).
