prints and words written on the wall

2009
In Florence they told me not to walk along the river. „Because of the rapes“ they said. But if you asked for more information, nobody could provide satisfying answers. So I began to search for the truth, which was not easy: it looked like if I bumped into a tabu, a forbidden zone. I found out that most of the rapes take place either inside the family or involve friends, and not -like the government and press was suggesting us - complete strangers. The beginning oft he project, 2009, fell into the time Berlusconi and -above all- Lega Nord (right wing parties) succeeded in gaining votes starting a xenophobic fear campaign after a rape committed by a Roma. Artemisia, an association that protects and helps victims of male aggression, released the exact numbers of cases. It is obvious that the truth is often far away from what the ruling lobbies want us to believe. The places chosen represent some crime scenes, but also a visual metaphor for what has happened – the woman normally feels guilty and „dirty“ and feels the urge to „wash away“ the filth. Statistic studies reported by the “Artemisia” association: From 1995 to 2005, about 250 women each year search for help in the center, just 0,5% of the women who suffered from domestic violence and 0,06% of the women who suffered from rapes in Florence in that period of time. Violence against women in Florence: 40% physical/psychological violence; 8% psychological mistreatment; 10% economical mistreatment; 4% stalking; 5% sexual violence; A woman asks for help normally after 8 years of mistreatment. Violence against women in Florence: women: 43% married; 24% single; 20% cohabitant; 2% separated; 70% Italian; 30% foreigner. Typology of the actor: 55% unsuspicious, 22% dependency towards alcohol or other; 11% psychical damage; 6% criminal record; 6% ex alcohol or drug addicts; The actors of rapes: 69,7% of the rapes are committed by partners; 17,4% by a friend; 6,2% by strangers. Almost no rapes are denunciated: 92,6 % if the actor is the partner. just 20% of the woman raped inside the family sees the action as a crime; 44% considers it an injustice; 36% considers it as something that simply happens. More than one third never talked with anyone about it.

Ongoing project:
THE FIGHT FOR THE RIGHTS OF THE WOMEN IS A PERMANENT REVOLUTION 
Three years later, in 2012, media reported 124 „femminicidi“ – feminicides – in Italy. These women´s killers have, again, been to 95% their husbands, their boy-friends, ex-lovers, friends, family members. This time, there were too many dead to hide the facts. Now media is more sensitive on these subjects, but it is obvious that even so many years after 1968, too many men still believe that to love is possession.
2016: 116 women were killed till the first of November. Media is reporting the facts, artists are reflecting these problematic in their works, and the dead are not silent anymore. Still, society didn’t change. The numbers of dead are part oft he work and will be provided both from 2009 and the years the work was and will be displayed.            

My project description