2023-12-13 17:06:44
“I asked myself where “human value” had gone, and one day I thought of Lampedusa, which was precisely where I had to go to look for it, on that island that is as small as it is large in humanity.” The photographer said it Tiziana Luxardo at the presentation of “Lampedusa – Fishermen of souls”, a traveling photographic exhibition and new social calendar Codacons 2024, which was held today in the Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome, which will host the exhibition until 15 December 2023 (time 11 – 13). This year too, the twinning between the photographer and Codacons is consolidated, as they have been promoting social campaigns for years which, through visual art, express suffering such as violence against women, exploitation in work camps, bullying and gambling addiction.
12 images measuring 2 meters x 1.40 which narrate “the soul of the island and its fishermen” – explained Luxardo, a photographer known and appreciated in Italy and abroad, a committed woman entrepreneur who for years has made a professional choice linked to strong social messages, who added: “before taking the shots I walked around the island on tiptoe so as not to disturb its atmosphere, to smell the soul of the people, especially its fishermen, rigorous but welcoming , with their motto: “no one is ever left at sea”, and this is the true essence of this place. Often to obtain the magic of a shot you have to use your own faith and spirituality, and in the images I wanted to narrate the soul of the island and its fishermen, and not tell reports of landings and hot spots. Lampedusa is a timeless island with the contradictory charm of tourist landings and emigrant landings, who strangely never meet.” For the occasion, works on the theme by 12 emerging artists are also on display.
Speakers at the event, moderated by Marco Ramadori, member of the Codacons presidential college, were Carlo Rienzi, founder and President of Codacons, who underlined: “Codacons has created this exhibition and calendar project in order to raise awareness among citizens and institutions on the topic of immigration. We intend on the one hand to launch projects aimed at providing support and assistance to the African populations at home, creating job opportunities in the agricultural field, and on the other hand to create a shared and participatory path to ensure an effective migrant reception strategy at State and Regional level”, Filippo Mannino, Mayor of Lampedusa, who highlighted: “my land has given a second chance at life to many children, men and women who were probably destined for certain death, and in this raft in the middle at the sea they found salvation. Being a seafarer, being in the middle of the sea, is not like being sitting in a living room in Brussels: if there is someone waving, who is drowning, who asks you for help, you have to help them, full stop”, and again Stefania Congia, Director General of Immigration and Integration Policies of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policies, Luigi Baggi, Director of the Lampedusa Hospital Camp, Laura Cassio, Vice Prefect of Turin, Don Mattia Ferrari, chaplain of Mediterranea Saving Humans.
Furthermore, during the meeting, in the presence of Commander Donato Zito of the Communications Office of the General Command of the Port Authority Corps who followed the implementation of the project, the trailer “The sea of emergency” was presented, the first documentary on the Italian Coast Guard which addresses the topic of rescues at sea linked to the migrant emergency, produced by Storm srl for Rai Documentari, written by Veronica D’Agostino and directed by Simone di Maria. Furthermore, the precious testimony of Mary Odiase, a Nigerian migrant who lived the experience of traveling to Italy in search of better living conditions, was shared.
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