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Matinee: 'Borderless' Share This on LinkedIn   Share This on Google   Tweet This   Forward This

29 December 2018

Saturday matinees long ago let us escape from the ordinary world to the island of the Swiss Family Robinson or the mutinous decks of the Bounty. Why not, we thought, escape the usual fare here with Saturday matinees of our favorite photography films?

So we're pleased to present the 272nd in our series of Saturday matinees today: Borderless.

This short preview of an Italian exhibit aspires, as the liner notes say, "to be an invitation to change our perception of the 'border' and places of belonging, to discover and rediscover ourselves as human, interested in those different from us, to transmit that fundamental and necessary empathy as a first step to true integration."

Street photographers Patrizia Bluette, Gabriele Caruso, Zino Citelli, Giuseppe Costanzo, Massimiliano Ferro and Anna Mogavero all contributed to the show "to raise awareness of inter-ethnic and intercultural coexistence based on the enhancement of differences."

Here's a translation of the liner notes:

Borderless, Images Without Borders is a photographic exhibition organized and curated by Graziella Bellone, which will open Friday, Dec. 28, at 6 p.m. in the Galleria Civica d'Arte of the seventeenth-century Palazzo Moncada in Caltanissetta in the presence of the mayor Giovanni Ruvolo, the councillor for Culture Pasquale Carlo Tornatore and the president of the Pro Loco Giuseppe D'Antona.

Consisting of a collection of 36 photos measuring 100x65cm, printed on Forex 5mm photo board, printed in both in black and white and in color, taken in Italy and abroad in which Patrizia Bluette, Gabriele Caruso, Zino Citelli, Giuseppe Costanzo, Massimiliano Ferro and Anna Mogavero, passionate street photographers, propose a human and meaningful reading of the problem of integration.

Each shot is a view of multi-ethnic experiences captured in their naturalness and incisiveness in the street, in markets, in workplaces, between school desks through expressions, looks, gestures and situations offering the opportunity to raise awareness of inter-ethnic and intercultural coexistence based on the enhancement of differences.

The exhibition aspires to be an invitation to change our perception of the "border" and places of belonging, to discover and rediscover ourselves as human, interested in those different from us, to transmit that fundamental and necessary empathy as a first step to true integration.

The exhibition is enriched by a diptych by Adriano Maraldi, an artist with 50 years of professional experience both in Italy and abroad, made on canvas with mixed media with dimensions of 100x50cm.

In International Migration: Key Findings From the U.S., Europe and the World, Phillip Connor provides some sobering statistics about the crisis which now counts some 244 million people.

He summarizes U.S. opinion of immigrants a little differently from what you see in the twitterverse:

Americans' opinions of immigrants have changed in recent years. In a new Pew Research Center survey, about six-in-ten U.S. adults (63 percent) say that immigrants strengthen the country through their hard work and talents. By contrast, about one-fourth (27 percent) say immigrants are a burden to the U.S. by taking jobs, housing and health care. The U.S. public's views of immigrants have largely reversed since the 1990s, when 63 percent said immigrants were a burden for the country and just under a third (31 percent) said immigrants strengthened the nation. Some groups of Americans hold more positive views of immigrants than others. For example, Democrats recently have been more likely than Republicans to say immigrants in the U.S. are a strength for the country. Also, younger age groups tend to hold more positive views than older generations.

In Europe, though, it's a different story:

In eight of 10 European nations surveyed in spring, half or more adults in those countries said incoming refugees increased the likelihood of terrorism in their countries. Similarly, half or more adults in five of the 10 countries surveyed said that refugees would have a negative economic impact on their countries, taking jobs and social benefits.

Which makes the show at Palazzo Moncada all the more important in cultivating "that fundamental and necessary empathy" to make the world a better place for everyone as a new year beckons.


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