“VITE IN MOVIMENTO”: ACCADEMIA ITALIANA FOR THE UNICEF EXHIBITION

In the spaces of the Tiburtina train station in Rome, from 10 to 18 December, UNICEF presents the photography exhibition “Lives in Movement. Dreams and challenges of 16 teenagers in Italy”. Significant the opening and closing dates of the event: the world day for human rights and the international day for the rights of migrants.

In this context which speaks of movement, discovery and the unknown, the choice of the train station, which has always been symbolic of travel, assumes a fundamental role: the visitor is invited to look at the world through the eyes of teenagers who found themselves forced to leave their homeland without knowing what the future had in store for them. Their journey took them to Italy and from here they depart to improve their lives, or simply to wait for the moment when they can finally return to their homeland. The photography exhibition is the result of a workshop which involved 16 teenagers from six different countries produced in collaboration with Giacomo Pirozzi, a professional photographer who has been working in crisis situations with UNICEF since 1991, and with the support of the Accademia Italiana who provided them with the laboratory space and the equipment. Students on the three-year Photography course then produced video interviews,

portraits and backstage photos with the protagonists of the project, in a synergistic multicultural and profoundly human experience. The objectives of the UNICEF actions are aimed at raising awareness and changing the narrative on migration which converge with the social and transformational vocation of the Accademia Italiana, for this reason the collaboration takes on not only a didactical but also and above all, identifying the values which the Accademia Italiana is committed to spreading within and it’s community and beyond. The inauguration of the exhibition was attended by Carla Garlatti, Authority Guarantee for Childhood and Adolescence; Barbara Funari, Councillor for Social Policies and Health from Rome City Council; representatives from UNICEF, the Accademia Italiana and the young migrants and refugees, protagonists of the exhibition.