• THE DREAM BY FABIO BUCCIARELLI

    Date posted: May 28, 2016 Author: jolanta
    Syrian woman looks at the sea in Kizkalesi, around 60 KM west of Mersin, Turkey, while hoping to be embarked soon on a ship headed to Europe, January 29, 2015. As the Syrian civil war continues with no end in sight thousands of Syrian refugees arrive each year to the turkish coasts near Mersin, turning to human smuggling operations as a way to reach Europe. One of the smugglers operating out of the port of Mersin, when interviewed, reported that 6,000 $ are required, per person, to get an illegal passage to Europe on board of old freighters. According to UNHCR more than 3,000 refugees and migrants drowned in the Mediterranean in 2014 fleeing conflict-torn regions, and more than 3,700 died in the same way in 2015.

    Over the past five years Fabio Bucciarelli has dedicated his life to document the major conflicts in Africa and Middle East, revealing to the world the cruelty of war and its devastating effects on the civilian populations.

    In 2011, Fabio started to develop The Dream, a photographic project on the largest exodus of migrants and refugees after the Second World War. In 2016, the work has become a book, published by FotoEvidence, a prestigious publishing house in New York.

    Syrian refugee family just landed after reaching, on a rubber boat from Turkey, the village of Skala Sykaminias located on the northeastern Greek island of Lesbos, on October 9, 2015. For many thousands of refugees and migrants heading to Europe from the Middle East, the long route to a new life lies through Greece and the Western Balkans with the ultimate destination in Germany and other northern EU countries. According to the UN Refugee Agency, more than 850.000 arrivals by sea were registered in Greece in 2015.

    Syrian refugee family just landed after reaching, on a rubber boat from Turkey, the village of Skala Sykaminias located on the northeastern Greek island of Lesbos, on October 9, 2015. For many thousands of refugees and migrants heading to Europe from the Middle East, the long route to a new life lies through Greece and the Western Balkans with the ultimate destination in Germany and other northern EU countries. According to the UN Refugee Agency, more than 850.000 arrivals by sea were registered in Greece in 2015.

    Within her exhibition space (which already housed, in 2014, Bucciarelli’s solo show, Maiores Nostri, dedicated to the South Sudan), from June 7, Raffaella De Chirico presents a selection of images contained in The Dream, thus giving a programmatic continuity of research through reportage photography, pertaining to social issues.

    In a refined – and masterfully realized – authorial experiment, poised between the classic photojournalism and artistic photography, The Dream is a reflection deep on the universal condition of men become migrant; the focus on the human being rather than on refugee becomes the starting point of a long journey, where the dream is revealed as the true motor of an excruciating journey seeking refuge.

    An Italian Red Cross doctor measures - with an electronic thermometer - the temperature of a Sub-Saharan boy, during the medical check in the tent set up at the dock in the port of Messina (Italy). On July 31st 2015, 392 people were disembarked from the Italian Coast Guard ship Diciotti at the Sicilian port of Messina. Most of the people came from Sub-Saharan countries like Gambia, Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast, Togo, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Guinea Conakry and Guinea Bissau. There were also refugees coming from Sudan, Somalia and Libya.

    An Italian Red Cross doctor measures – with an electronic thermometer – the temperature of a Sub-Saharan boy, during the medical check in the tent set up at the dock in the port of Messina (Italy). On July 31st 2015, 392 people were disembarked from the Italian Coast Guard ship Diciotti at the Sicilian port of Messina. Most of the people came from Sub-Saharan countries like Gambia, Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast, Togo, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Guinea Conakry and Guinea Bissau. There were also refugees coming from Sudan, Somalia and Libya.

    The selection of shots in the exhibition aims to reproduce the project concept. On June 7, also the book, realized through the crowdfunding of 197 people who have financially supported the production, will be officially presented.

    The Dream is a lucidly oneiric photographic tale for a book that comes to light at a time when the refugee crisis has become the biggest exodus in contemporary history, often documented by the media in an impersonal way, generating indifference if not hostility among public opinion.

    Migrants and refugees coming from Sub-Saharan countries are seen in line for the identification process at the dock of the port of Messina (Italy). On July 4th 2015, 306 people were disembarked from the Italian Coast Guard ship at the Sicilian port of Messina. They were rescued from 3 different boats departed from Libya. Most of the people came from Sub-Saharan countries like Gambia, Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Mauritania, Guinea Conakry, Guinea Bissau, Ethiopia and Sudan.

    Migrants and refugees coming from Sub-Saharan countries are seen in line for the identification process at the dock of the port of Messina (Italy). On July 4th 2015, 306 people were disembarked from the Italian Coast Guard ship at the Sicilian port of Messina. They were rescued from 3 different boats departed from Libya. Most of the people came from Sub-Saharan countries like Gambia, Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Mauritania, Guinea Conakry, Guinea Bissau, Ethiopia and Sudan.

    During the creation of The Dream, Fabio has made use of various technical tools to suggest to the reader a different perspective on migrants’ conditions today. The use of pinhole images, created with Pinolina (a unique camera, built specifically for this project development) gives rhythm to the book, leading the reader towards a participant experience.

    The Dream, Fabio Bucciarelli. @ Raffaella De Chirico Contemporary Art.

    The Dream, Fabio Bucciarelli. @ Raffaella De Chirico Contemporary Art.

    The book has a limited edition of 1000 copies, in which black and white pictures, diptychs, composites and color images are alternated among the 180 pages. 100 copies are Special Edition, distributed in a “book vest” made by refugees – hosted in Pikpa reception camp (Lesbos island) – with those same life jackets used by themeselves to reach Europe. Each book vest is unique and unrepeatable, a product that seals the collaboration between the author and the protagonists.

    The Dream, Fabio Bucciarelli. @ Raffaella De Chirico Contemporary Art.

    The Dream, Fabio Bucciarelli. @ Raffaella De Chirico Contemporary Art.

    The Special Edition also contains one of the four selected photographs with 25 editions printed on fine art paper Hahnemuhle German Etching 310gsm.

    The Dream will be on display from June 7 to September 15, 2016 at Raffaella De Chirico Contemporary Art.

    Raffaella De Chirico Contemporary Art
    Via della Rocca, 19
    10123 – Turin

    THE DREAM
    FABIO BUCCIARELLI

    opening 7 june | 19h00 – 22h00
    7 june – 15 september 2016

    Courtesy of Raffaella De Chirico Contemporary Art

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