At the Bottini dell’Olio from May 21 (opening at 5.00) to July 2, 2022 Livorno, May 18, 2022 – The halls of the Bottini dell’Olio library will host the final exhibition of the “Gorgona Project 2021/2022 – The Prison of Freedom,” promoted by the “Laviosa” Foundation, conceived and coordinated by Flavia Bertolli, a teacher at the “Majorana” scientific high school in Capannori and a member of the board of directors of the same Foundation, which has among its main objectives to develop and support projects and actions with strong social and educational value.
The exhibition is sponsored by the City of Livorno and is promoted by the “Carlo Laviosa” Foundation as part of the initiatives celebrating the company’s centennial. In recent months, the Gorgona Project has involved more than 200 students from the high schools Liceo Scientifico Majorana in Capannori, Istituto Tecnologico-Agrario Brancoli Busdraghi in Lucca, Istituto Nautico Cappellini in Livorno, Professional Institute Orlando in Livorno and Liceo Fermi in Cecina.
After some study work on the principles underlying Article 27 of the Italian Constitution and the need for the reintegration into society of inmates who have served their sentences, the students had the opportunity to learn about the re-educational and working reality of Gorgona by visiting it together with their teachers and under the guidance of environmental experts and some inmates.
They were then asked to rework the new civic and ethical horizons explored at Gorgona through the creation of graphic panels and videos.
THE EXHIBITION – The students’ works will be on display from May 21 (opening at 5 p.m.) to July 2, 2022 in the first-floor spaces facing the Bottini dell’Olio library in Pious Place Square.
At the inauguration, the class that best interpreted the Project’s theme will be awarded a prize in the presence of Carlo Mazzerbo, director of the Livorno Prison (which also includes the Gorgona prison.
The winner will be the one who managed to illustrate in a permeating and clear way “the values of education and work as tools for the acquisition of the individual’s freedom.”
Freedom not only understood in a geographical sense, but in an inner sense, Freedom as the ability to be that which can facilitate the development of a peaceful life and not to be that which leads to the annihilation of oneself and one’s ability to live under the banner of the full expression of one’s gifts and desires.
Along with the students’ products, the collection of photos by prison police officer Pierangelo Campolattano and the photographic results of the workshop conducted by photographer Francesco Sinni will also be on display.
Campolattano has been portraying moments and protagonists of work and places on the island for years with skillful and careful delicacy.
“Limitrofia” is Sinni’s collection of photos are snapshots and self-portraits taken by the inmates themselves who participated in the workshop held by the freelancer , who on weekends in 2014, 2015 and 2016, went to the island to teach with generosity and expertise the art of photography to the internees.
Some of these have achieved such professionalism as to be expendable in the world of work once they have completed their prison terms. The exhibition will be open during the opening hours of the Oil Bottini Library, Monday through Saturday 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. ; 2:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.; Sunday 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. .
INSIGHTS
THE STUDENTS AND THE WORK PERFORMED AT THE GORGONA PRISON On the island, the youngsters were able to see the implementation and effectiveness of a detention system in which the inmates present – currently about a hundred – are concretely offered the possibility of serving their sentences by rebuilding their identity as active and aware citizens thanks to agricultural and construction work, animal care, and the arrangement of the island’s paths and roads.
During the boys’ visit to the island, the director of the Livorno Prison (which also includes Gorgona) Carlo Mazzerbo gave the young guests the opportunity to meet him on the terrace of the Spaccio in front of the splendid panorama that embraces sea and sky and distant horizons.
“Like all prison islands,” Director Carlo Mazzerbo explained to the youngsters, “Gorgona, home to a penitentiary institution since 1896, has always been characterized by the open regime available to inmates engaged mainly in activities of an agricultural nature. The philosophy behind the ‘Gorgona model’ is in fact the creation of a real community where each inmate has the opportunity to make his own contribution, with a specific role that develops his sense of belonging, sharing and responsibility.”
Underlying this philosophy is the commitment of everyone, guards and inmates, administrative and educators, volunteers and health care personnel to work, live and act under the banner of constant and concrete respect for others, as well as for themselves.
Gorgona Prison addresses and guarantees the inmate’s full fulfillment of his rights as an individual as a working subject, but also as a whole person: including the family, intellectual, spiritual and recreational spheres.
On the island there is a church that accommodates and respects everyone’s religious beliefs, a school where inmates can retrace the steps that life’s adversities have denied them, a sports field where soccer tournaments are held among all the professionalities present, and a library that strives to enrich and fortify the character and vision of inmates.
Cultural, sporting and recreational activities are activities aimed at a single purpose : social reintegration Particular care is given to talks with family members: at Gorgona a protected area has been created with a garden with children’s games and private spaces and where families and inmates can meet to maintain and fortify those relationships of affection that are indispensable for redemption and self-recovery.
At Gorgona, work and humanity are recognized and practiced areas, a demonstration that this is possible.
Visiting Gorgona and reflecting on Gorgona is an opportunity for growth and awareness of the concept of legality, redemption, recovery rehabilitation.
Already the Enlightenmentists of the 1700s, Cesare Beccaria in primis, had intended and promoted a reconsideration of the crude brutality of punishment understood as affliction of body and spirit. Centuries and lives lost to this limiting and erroneous view bring us to Gorgona, theisland of rebirth, the prison of freedom.
