Animenta presents 'AltriCorpi' (Other Bodies), an educational event on eating disorders

A succession of talks and testimonials framed by the outfits and photographs of Accademia Italiana

"AltriCorpi: dialogues for new narratives from Eating Disorders to non-conforming bodies" is the event that took place on Saturday 16 March in Rome, at the Monk spaces. It was organized by Animenta, a non-profit organization with an online community of 44,000 people founded by Aurora Caporossi, 26, from Rome, who has a past of nervous anorexia.

Rome, 20 March 2024

The initiative, linked to the annual anniversary of the National Day of the Lilac Ribbon for the fight against eating disorders (DCA), was created with the aim of creating an informative and welcoming moment for the audience, to promote a correct culture on eating disorders, inviting people not to think in terms of stereotypes and to consider the psychic, social and cultural complexity of the problem.

The event was divided into four panels, during which specialists from different fields provided insights into different aspects that are fundamental to consider when talking about DCA. The macro topics covered were: the body, its perception by those who suffer from it; health, health aids and the solutions that exist and most of the time do not work; social media, to reflect on the language used on social networks to discuss eating disorders, starting from the risks connected to the creation of misunderstandings on the part of users and the dissemination of dangerous messages; and stories, the testimonies of young people from the Animenta community who have faced the disease and managed to cope with it.

The day saw the presentation of the manifesto dresses created and made by the young designers of Accademia Italiana under the coordination of teachers Ilenia Alesse, Patrizia Valentini, Gianluca Santangelo. The students of the second and third year of the BA in Fashion Design worked on the concept of rebirth and balance that one feels when overcoming an eating disorder and on the idea of beauty for all bodies.

The outfits were also the protagonists of a shooting involving the students of the BA in Photography, coordinated by lecturer Tania Alineri. The editorial was presented during the initiative and disseminated online, with the aim of deconstructing the stigma surrounding this type of disease.

The aim is always to build new narratives around the body, food and health in order to understand that there is never just one story that tells what reality is.