VENICE The only thing the Pope will not have to do is leave his cell phone under the gaze of the prison guards, nor be subjected to a metal detector check before entering the door. For the rest, your visit to the Pavilion for the Art Biennale – set up inside the Giudecca women’s prison – will be in all respects the same as that of normal visitors who will want to see with their own eyes what the greatest exponents of contemporary art they created by working for months, elbow to elbow, with the inmates themselves. It starts from a tortuous path, through corridors, eight meter high, suffocating walls, topped with barbed wire, turrets. Time marked by the sound of heavy bunches of keys banging together and the thuds of the armored doors behind. Once it was a monastery of “converted” women, now it is a place of detention for around eighty guests, some of whom were sentenced to the maximum sentence.
Minister Nordio inaugurates the Vatican Pavilion at the Venice Biennale: “art offers hope in places of pain”
POETRY
«I’m in a place I would never want to be, but I’ve learned a lot. I live for my son, the dearest thing in my life. Life is precious, it must be lived for better or for worse. A beautiful thought for everyone” writes Alessandra in this poem composed for the Biennale. Three inmates lead the international group of journalists who were able to preview the papal journey on the eve of the trip to Venice. Antonella, Fanta and Giulia introduce themselves and welcome. They wear a black and white coat, sewn by themselves in the internal laboratory. They lead the way for the guests, revealing step by step the symbolism contained in the works they encounter. They immediately show us the cafeteria, their meeting place. «This is an environment where we work. On that wall there are the works of Corita Kent, an American artist and political activist well ahead of her time.” Fanta speaks in English adding other details about the progenitor of pop art. She points to a colorful poster, in large letters: HOPE even though it is written backwards. «Of all the artists on display this is the only one who has long disappeared». Giulia, long black hair, nose piercing, very intense eyes, says: «her message emanates color to us too, in a place where color doesn’t exist».
Biennale, Cattelan at the Vatican Pavilion where visitors are accompanied in the Venetian Giudecca area by inmates
In all likelihood, Antonella, Fanta and Giulia will act as guides to Pope Francis, discovering the meaning of the works by Claire Taburè, Simone Fattal, Claire Fontaine, Maurizio Cattelan, Marco Perego and Zoe Saldana, Sonia Gomes, Bintou Deambula. There will also be the creators of the Pavilion, Chiara Parisi and Bruno Racine, the true driving forces of the idea together with Cardinal Josè Tolentino de Mendonca.
ARTISTIC SOUL
Giulia is shy but perhaps, judging by the poems she composed and which Simone Fattal used to create enamelled lava plaques along the perimeter of the surrounding wall, she is the artistic soul of the group. Overlapping signs and slurred calligraphies that speak of anger, added to joy, tears, freedom. At the bottom of that surrounding wall there is the barred eye of the Claire Fontaine collective. At night, when everything is shrouded in darkness, it lights up blue. «She indicates a blindness that goes beyond the ability to see» underlines Alessandra. The work is inspired by the title of the Pavilion, “With my eyes”, a comparison between those who are free like air and those who only have air for a couple of hours a day in the internal courtyard surmounted by another installation that in the darkness it lights up and announces: “We are with you in the night”. Practically two worlds that the Holy See wanted to bring together not to absolve, but to understand, each with its own gaze. “If we look out of those windows at night we can see it.” Even if the Vatican Pavilion, which opened its doors a few days ago, will in fact symbolically inaugurate a journey that entertains the idea of transforming the hearts of visitors. «It is hope that moved us» whispers Chiara Parisi.
THE DAY
This morning Francesco will meet the inmates in the deconsecrated chapel of the prison where colored filaments of fabrics hang from the ceiling, as in a game of mirrors. «I like to imagine that they are cocoons that are transforming and then will fly away like butterflies» smiles Giulia. Francesco will address important words to the artists, after all art has the imaginative power to reflect on the future and overcome every barrier. The program of his day in Venice – a total of six very intense hours – includes a meeting with young people, followed by mass in St. Mark’s Square. It is clear that it will be a sort of test on his health after the troubles that have tormented him in recent months. The papal visit, however, also hides controversial consequences, such as the fact of making pilgrims pay the famous entrance fee for tourists, 5 euros each for a total of nine thousand paying people out of 10 thousand faithful, which has distorted the nose of many Catholics.
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