Oriri, by Francesco Bellina and Sereno, by Fulvia Bernacca published by Forward edizioni. Francesco Bellina and Fulvia Bernacca in dialogue with Diego Emanuele (Studio Forward Creative Director) and Chiara Capodici

The presentation of ORIRI and Sereno represents an opportunity for a dialogue between the two authors which allows us to delve deeper into similarities and differences in their respective books, and an opportunity to talk about two different approaches to photography.

The volumes are part of a broader process of culture and art valorization project byStudio Forward through Forward Edizioni, an “authorial” publishing house, which through limited editions, specific graphic projects and an editorial committees working on specific publications, has the aim of reevaluating the central importance of the book object in the digital age.

Francesco Bellina’s ORIRI talks about the religious and ritual bond between women victims of sexual slavery and exploiters, who often resort to priests of local cults, generally described as voodoo, to create and strengthen the bond of subjugation. ORIRI (which in the Bini language means “spirits, nightmares”) is a journey backwards through the experience of thousands of women forced to lead a life of exploitation, forever linked to their exploiters through the initiatory and religious rite, a key element of this phenomenon. The documentary journey develops through the countries where these initiatory rites are celebrated: from the Republic of Benin, the only country where voodoo is the official religion and a positive role of rituals is claimed, to Ghana, a fundamental stage for the international trafficking of migrants, where traditional rites intersect with the rules of the Pentecostal churches, passing through Nigeria, where the links of criminal activities and human trafficking are connected to ritual and religious traditions. Niger and in particular the city of Agadez is a fundamental hub for the trafficking of human beings, who cross the desert from the Tenerè region towards Libya. A story where criminal networks merge with religious cults, to arrive in Sicily where there is fertile ground due to the local mafia. Bellina’s work also intends to enhance widespread solidarity practices, aimed at stemming the phenomenon of victims of trafficking, implemented by many nuns and priests who work in close contact with these realities, providing concrete aid to sexual slaves.

Sereno, by Fulvia Bernacca, is a journey through clouds and time, a visual and poetic story on the figure of weather colonel Edmondo Bernacca. For Italians, Bernacca was an institution, so much so that it has now become a saying. He was a meteorologist, general of the Air Force and journalist. He was lucky enough to have been the first meteorologist to appear on television in Italy in 1955. From the 1960s to the 1980s, every evening, thousands of Italian families awaited his forecasts, to find out what the weather would be like the next day. For Fulvia Bernacca he has always been Nonno Mondo: not just a grandfather, but a sort of magician, a fortune teller, a mysterious man with very big ears and a head full of clouds. The project began when, immersing himself in his grandfather’s archive, she found his farewell letter, in which he retraces his last journey from the Rai studios to home, and at the same time the fundamental stages of his private and professional life. His words thus became the trace of the project. A journey, through light and intimate visions, into the history of his family and in some way of all the Italian families who for years welcomed Colonel Bernacca as one of their own.