“Kouros”, another extraordinary exhibition by the photographer and art-therapist Gagliano at the “Leone”

When a genius, in this case of photographic art, like Salvatore Gio’ Gagliano meets a courageous young man like Marco Canella, you can be sure that the result will be an exceptional event. This event has a name: it is called “Kouros”, which was a Greek statue from the archaic period, and which becomes, nowadays, to be precise from Sunday 21 April to 2 June, an exhibition that will be hosted in the Sala d’Ercole of the Leone Museum.

Marco Canella is the twenty-year-old from Vercelli who lost his right leg on July 20th two years ago in a dramatic motorbike accident in Spotorno. Doctors were forced to amputate his leg starting from the top, just below the pelvis. After the surgery and rehabilitation at the “Trompone”, with a prosthesis provided to him by the National Health Service, which absolutely did not guarantee him to carry out normal daily movements, precisely due to the depth of the amputation, Marco had the opportunity to try a bionic prosthesis the so-called “Genium knee”, and immediately reported that experience on Facebook, writing: “I finally had the opportunity to try the Genium knee from Ottobock, I have a good sensation with it and I feel much safer than with mine”.

However, there was a problem, that bionic protest cost a lot, and it was for that reason that, on the anniversary of the accident, Marco opened a fundraiser on Facebook, which he wittily named “A hand for a leg” on the platform Go.Fund.Me.

In a few days, also thanks to the fact that his appeal was picked up by paper and online newspapers, the donations reached 10 thousand, but to have a bionic prosthesis like the one he had the chance to try, many more were needed .

Well, thanks to the generosity of the people of Vercelli, and not only of the people of Vercelli, to the various initiatives organized precisely for his objective (among many we remember the Give me Five organized by the Army of Hearts with the cyclists Samantha Profumo, Cinzia Canna and Riccardo Meazzi, who pedaled for twelve hours on rollers for him), in the end the bionic leg arrived: it was implanted by a specialized company in Budrio, near Bologna. Marco is happy, he graduated as a mechanical expert from Itis “Faccio”, and one of the companies that, more than others, contributed to reaching the goal of 58 thousand euros needed for the bionic leg, Mundi Riso, also hired him : will start work on Monday.

However, despite obtaining the bionic leg he longed for, Marco’s search for contributions has not ended because the maintenance of the artificial limb is very expensive. And here the art-therapist and educator of the “Muni Prestinari” Community of Anffas comes into play. Salvatore Gio’ Gagliano read Marco’s story and decided to meet him by offering him to pose for an exhibition in which the artist who developed, among many other initiatives, the extraordinary “The Faces of Passion” in which he reviewed the history of art, making disabled people pose as sculptures and paintings world famous (from Michelangelo’s Pietà to Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring), he now photographs him, Marco, as a “Kouros”. Courageously, Marco made himself available, posing half-naked with his bionic right leg clearly visible, in plastic poses that truly refer to the “kouroi” of ancient Greece (in turn borrowed from Egyptian art). Gagliano has obtained twenty-seven author’s photos of extraordinary visual and emotional impact which will be exhibited from Sunday and until 2 June in the Sala d’Ercole del Leone, on normal visiting days and times: the exhibition will be visible without purchasing any tickets.

All 27 images will be put up for sale precisely to support Marco’s request for contributions for the maintenance of the prosthesis: for each of them the minimum price is 50 euros and an auction will be launched if there are multiple offers for the same image. Of each photo, in the event of a considerable number of requests, Gagliano is obviously ready to print multiple copies. Twenty-one of the photos will be placed in the Hall of Hercules, another six inside the Museum: the latter can only be admired by paying visitors. Alongside the photos there is also a video, in which Marco Canella shows his ability in different types of sports: before the accident he loved basketball and played for the Rices of Vercelli; now he plays basketball, but in a wheelchair, on behalf of HB Di Torino.

The “Kouros” exhibition will be inaugurated on Sunday at 5.30 pm. The texts that illustrate it are edited by Lorella Giudice. Even before the opening, substantial offers for the purchase of the photos had already arrived, such as 700 euros from the association “I Pagliacci nel cuore”.

Salvatore Giò Gagliano observes: “I hope the public responds. I like to know that the exhibition takes place in a prestigious hall of the Leone, precisely in the same period in which, in the nearby Sala delle Cinquecentine, there is the guitar exhibition dedicated to Angelo Gilardino. The Master from Vercelli was among the critics who reviewed, in a wonderful way, my ‘Faces of Passion’ writing in the catalog of that exhibition in 2009. And therefore the closeness, at this point I would say not only physical, but spiritual, between the two events It really moves me.”

Edm