VIDEO | At the Turin Motor Show the SuperAbile Inail special ‘Details at the center’

"'Particolari al centro" was presented at the Turin Motor Show, the special issue attached to the SuperAbile Inail magazine which collects ten artistic projects created by people with disabilities

by Rachele Bombace and Manuela Boggia

ROME – “Art does not generate differences, it enhances them”. These words opened the presentation this morning at the Turin International Book Fair of ‘Particolari al centro‘, the special issue attached to the SuperAbile Inail magazine which collects ten artistic projects created by people with disabilities. A book in images that talks about transformation, change, rebirth, humanity, love, and respect. A cultural revolution before a social one that looks at the plurality of the human being through the arts: painting, theatre, cinema, dance and photography.

“SPREADING THE CULTURE OF DISABILITY”

Inail with its integrated contact center SuperAbile, dedicated to the world of disabilities, “wants to give strength to article 3 of the Constitution which tells us about substantial equality between people to allow everyone full participation in social life- says Pamela Maddaloni, director of the Institute’s central socio-health services management – this magazine is a tool for spreading culture about disability”. Art “does not generate differences because it generates art, transmits ideas, messages and reflects the emotions and feelings of the authors – continues Fabio Lo Faro, regional director of Inail Piedmont – thus it breaks down all boundaries. Art transcends linguistic and cultural barriers and is a powerful vehicle of the culture of inclusion. Today with this Special we want to challenge all predefined social constructions and present the artists with their works to try and generate doubts about preconceptions and make a difference”.

The works contained in this book range from the paintings of the self-taught and Inail-assisted painter Ivan Lorenzo Frezzini to those of the neurodivergent and neurotypical artists of the Ultrablu laboratory, from the photos of Roberto Biggio and Thomas Quintavalle to the dance of Ivan Cottini, from the cinema of actors with Down syndrome of the Coordown Coordination to the workshops on relationships managed by the Don Luigi Di Liegro Foundation and those on dreams by Angelo Azzurro Onlus, up to meditative art and ‘Yoga for all’ with the paralympic athlete Patrizia Saccà.

“There are many ways of doing things, ‘particular’ ones, like making poetry – explains Roberto Boccalon, psychiatrist and president of the International Association for Art and Psychology – and in the psychodynamic perspective the word is considered an agent of possible maturations transformative. But where words do not reach, dreams and empathetic relationships with others arrive, which help us access the unconscious, the deepest levels of being, to create a bridge between the experience of the world and its thinkability. Art is a point of reference – concludes the psychiatrist – which helps us face the other hemispheres”.

“OVERCOME THE STIGMA”

It is an “important vehicle for overcoming diversity without standardized stereotypes – adds Vincenzo Falabella, president of Fish -. Usually the condition of disability prevails in the person, but in Italy we are trying to overcome the stigma to put people at the centre, because those with disabilities want to live independently of their condition. Over the years the concept of disability has evolved just like that of art, I can say this because I live with a disability and use a wheelchair which must be considered as an instrument of citizenship. Putting the detail at the center means placing each person at the center of the environment. The more hostile the external environment, the greater the difficulty in living will be – recalls Falabella – if instead art helps us create a more inclusive environment, then it will be possible to eliminate the condition of disability. Even the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, reminds us of the value of the dignity of the human person who must be enabled to express all his potential”.

One of the various possibilities of being is told by Patrizia Saccà, author of the ‘Free Ray Yoga‘ method: “I translated the 12 asana positions and the sun salutation to allow everyone to participate, even people in wheelchairs. I am a councilor on the board of the Italian Paralympic Committee (CIP) and I know how much Inail does in the sporting world. I come from sport after an accidental fall at the age of 13 which made me lose the use of my legs. Our motto is ‘where the body doesn’t reach, the mind arrives, and where the mind doesn’t reach, the spirit arrives’. After many years of sporting activity, I put the anger of not walking on a ping pong table by participating in the Paralympics, the World Cup and the European Championships, but I never abandoned yoga. In 2017 I became a teacher of this discipline and a long journey began for me. Tomorrow, here at the Turin Book Fair I present my latest book ‘The Salute to the Moon’.