The International Festival of Different Abilities has just closed its doors on its 12th edition, titled "Acts of Truth." This year's experience was full of deeply moving moments that prompted reflection from everyone, but above all, it offered a series of extraordinary encounters.
We began with an epigraph: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy"—Shakespeare's words from Hamlet. Reality always exceeds our thoughts. There are facts that happen in life that remind us of this truth in surprising ways. And this year, it happened beyond our expectations, "pressed down, shaken together, and overflowing," as Jesus said (Luke 6:38).
The festival opened with an exhibition of outsider art titled "Figures of Protection," curated by art historian and critic Bianca Tosatti. This was the fourth outsider art exhibition organized by the Nazareno Cooperative in Carpi, drawing large crowds. It marked the breakthrough of Gianluca Pirrotta, an artist from our Manolibera studio. He was selected from 500 European artists and will participate in Munich at the Euward Prize—Europe's most prestigious award for painting and graphic art by artists with intellectual disabilities.
Another spectacular moment was the Open Festival, a showcase and competition featuring groups from across Italy. This year more than 20 groups performed in various disciplines—theater, dance, music, and film—coming from Emilia Romagna, Piedmont, Lombardy, Sardinia, the Marches, Tuscany, and the Veneto. The enthusiasm of the participants and their stunning performances gave us something true and beautiful that will remain in our hearts forever.
But more than all the performances, more than the famous guests who attended (Paolo Cavoli, the legendary "councilman" with Claudia Penoni; Paolo Brosio with Iva Zanicchi), we were struck by the extraordinary welcoming spirit described by the mothers from Cremona in the documentary "Tremendously Loved." The strength born from faith—the peace these mothers possess despite having severely disabled children—created in all of us a longing for that same joy and a desire to know it.
What truly amazed us and made our hearts leap was the extraordinary encounter between David Jackson and our young people in the music workshop. This progressive rock legend of the '70s began working with people with disabilities using the SoundBeam method, which generates sound from body movement. Where none of us had seen anything, he discovered unsuspected talents and abilities. Two days later, Roberto and Marco—both severely tetraplegic—performed in the show "Inside the Music." The joy that shone from their eyes, Roberto's mother's comment ("Is that my son?"), the shock on our staff's faces after all these years of knowing these young people and never noticing—these were among the most important moments of the festival.
Our closing statement, which traditionally sums up the festival experience, ended like this: "To see the stars, extinguish your light"—words from sometime ago. David Jackson, with his simple way of seeing, proved it to us. He caught that sudden gleam, that hidden sparkle—that "twinkle," in English—which we rarely notice because we are busy measuring, cataloging, and defining people and things, trying to create "systems so perfect that no one would ever need to be good." We wish everyone eyes as simple as a child's, so they can rediscover that gleam, that original sparkle hidden in everything.
And now, let's roll up our sleeves and start preparing the next festival!
Sergio Zini, 2010
