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“To help the Ukraine it means to work for peace” (Mario Draghi)
May, 3rd 2022 – European Parliament – Strasbourg
On Saturday, May 28th 2022, at 5 p.m. the UKRAINE PAVILION will open. An International Mail Art project curated by Ruggero Maggi, in collaboration with SACS and Dynamic Museum of Mail Art in Quiliano (SV). Followed by speeches of Nicola Isetta, Major of the city of Quiliano, of Nadia Ottonello, Culture Assessor of Quiliano, of Mauro Carrera, writer and art critic, of Cristina Sosio, SACS director and of Ruggero Maggi, artist and curator of this exhibition.
Also the mail art must make its voice heard... we are all aware of what the Ukrainian people is feeling on their own skin.
Hundreds of international artists of 41 different countries have sent works in blue and yellow colours in order to compose a great and creative Ukrainian flag, as a sign of peace. In 2018, for the opening of the Dynamic Museum of Mail Art in Quiliano, we presented a great flag of peace. The present celebration can be therefore considered as the ideal extension of what was done at that time.
The violence of war assaults like a virus that simmers for years, for many decades, and then explodes with all its brutal strength. It spreads like wildfire, it contaminates souls, killing and violating consciences. It hides behind false smiles, behind vulgar masks only to reveal itself for what it really is… an insane and arrogant instinct towards the most unrestrained violence, without regard for even the most basic human rights. Man is a “special” being but he isn’t master of creation, as the recent pandemic reminded us, and those who defy Nature always pay the consequences and war is the most striking example of an offence to the nature and to other human beings.
We don’t take a stance against a country in favour of another... it’s a permanent stance against war wherever the aggression comes from. Violence is never acceptable.
The conflict, in that part of the world, was already underway in 2014, but it was at “low-intensity” or, at least, that’s how it was defined and, like fire under the ashes, as soon as Covid began to claim fewer victims, it exploded in all its harshness...what a perverse game war is …always.
At the opening of the project, artists and public, were invited to bring their own trolley which will be placed in order to create a long line leading to the exhibition: in silent remembrance of what’s happening to the Ukrainian people forced to flee the cities, the villages, their homes.
Mail Art has always been mobilised in favour of social causes and has succeeded in involving thousands of people all over the world. This concept was expressed several times during the meeting Maggi organized at Villa Fanna (Villorba,TV), 30 years ago for the Decentralized Networker Congress led by H.R.Fricker.
All works submitted will be donated from the curator to SACS archive of the Municipality of Quiliano; a special thanks to Cristina Sosio, who directs it, to Monica Gambetta, employee of Culture office of the city of Quiliano, and to Lilia Viriglio for translating.
Poste Italiane has participated to UKRAINE PAVILION with a special philatelic cancellation - reproducing the logo of the project designed for the occasion by Maggi - that will be presented on the opening day.
I would like to thanks Annamaria Gallo, referent of Commercial Philately Macro North West Area, Daniela Nurisio, referent of Philately Provinces of Savona and Imperia and Loredana Lenza, referent of Philately MP - Area North West.
An online catalogue will be realized with the works of participating artists.
A friend from Genoa suggested me this sentence by Roberto Vecchioni taken from “Stranamore” of 1978: “Man is a great, man is alive, man is not war...”
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