11 – 13 October, at Palermo, Italy
In the pursuit for a life that is worth living, persons and communities in Ballarò and Exarchia have been battling institutional indifference (hostility) and the predatory logic of profit above all, for decades. In this long struggle, spaces where residents, locals and citizens can learn from each other and connect their experiences and dreams are essential to imagine and act.
This intimate festival, Exarchia – Ballarò: Storie Sospese (Exarchia – Ballarò: Stories Suspended), was such a space and such a moment! Inter Alia members travelled to Palermo, to meet the team of Moltivolti, a social enterprise that promotes food as a tool for dialogue between different people and cultures, active in the Ballarò district of Palermo. Together, we co-organised three days full of activities.
Travelling objects | Collection day & community gathering
On the first day of the festival, members of the local community who are migrants or refugees arrived at the Moltivolti restaurant, along with items symbolic of their journey, and shared their stories with us. Stories of items from Palestine, Gambia, Nigeria, Russia, Syria, Mauritius, Benin, Bangladesh, Tunisia, Sierra Leone, Venezuela, Mali, Burkina Faso and Chad unraveled during both intimate and group discussions and interviews carried out by the Inter Alia and Moltivolti teams, in Italian, English and French. The common point in all the stories was the place where the items have currently found a home; Palermo.
The day was concluded with a celebration at the restaurant space of Moltivolti, with traditional Senegalese food and a lot of music!
Resistance in shorts | Special thematic screening from the collection of Positively Different Short Film Festival
On the second day of Exarchia – Ballarò: Storie Sospese, a Positively Different Short Film Festival (PDSFF) screening was held, at Oratorio Santa Chiara. A collection of short films from PDSFF23, as well as PDSFF22 and PDSFF21 and were screened in front of an audience of locals, friends of Moltivolti and participants of the OEDYPUS training in Palermo that was taking place during the week of the festival. The shorts chosen were ones that talked about resistance of individuals and of communities, through love and collective action, against absurd, but, at the same time, very real institutions, against their hostility and indifference. They were the stories of a girl and her dog caught in the midst of a protest in Chile, of a homeless man in Italy and his struggle to make ends meet, of the hope and despair of a gardener in a dystopian regime, of a Kurdish refugee searching for place in Athens, and of a diverse group of neighbours in Brussels, trying to reimagine and radicalise their neighbourhood.
Travelling objects | Opening of the exhibition of items and stories gathered during the collection day
On the final day of the festival, we opened the exhibition of the objects gathered during the collection day. These objects came to claim the moments of togetherness we have left. The neighbourhoods and spaces that can fit all worlds. Telling us that we are not the only ones to suffer, that all cultures mix, convincing us we can only be free only when everyone is free. As long as we remember the seas that we have all crossed and the walls that we have climbed (and we still do), our spaces will be safe; at least in our mind and heart.
The space of the exhibition was an intersection where harsh and powerful memories met daily routines and realities. The visitor would find 18 stories of people who arrived in Palermo from different corners of the globe and they are trying to make ends meet, to resist, to dream, to work, to think what to have for lunch, to belong, to fight for their rights. It remained open to the public for two weeks after the day of the opening, in the restaurant space of Molivolti.
You can find the exhibition in digital form, here. Maybe one of the stories brings back memories from your own journey or the one of your family. After all, we all arrived from somewhere, didn’t we?
For more information, you can contact Nikos Papakostas (papakostas@interaliaproject.com), Boyka Boneva (boneva@interaliaproject.com) or Hara Papadatou (papadatou@interaliaproject.com).
To stay up to date with Positively Different Short Film Festival’s news and activities, you can visit the festival’s website or follow it on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
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