Nicoletta Acerbi

Nicoletta was born, in Reggio Emilia, Italy in 1977.

Taking pictures has been her passion during the last 10 years Developing an the interest regarding issues such as migrants and their world, women and their conditions.

Important art work and exhibitions, in which photography became an instrument to give voice to the ones deprived of it.  Among these projects it’s possible to recall "The movement of sem terra" (Brasil 2001), "Social Forum" (Venezuela 2006), "Mali" (Africa 2003).

Among these projects it’s possible to recall “The movement of sem terra” (Brasil 2001), “Social Forum” (Venezuela 2006), “Mali” (Africa 2003).

Several of her work have been a close co-operation with the Reggio Emilia Council about the issue of migrant women, such as "Migrant woman and work: a choice of hope" (2005) and "Plural female" (2006) whilst "From the camp to the city"(2009) is an homage to the gypsy that her work entitles.

Other personal projects include "Caffe' Babele" ( 2006), a portrait of  Eastern European women, and Migran May (2007/2008), concerning the demonstration of 1st may in Italy.

Projects > abandoned

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Former (judiciary) psychiatric hospital located in Reggio Emilia.

It was converted from convent to (judiciary) psychiatric hospital. In 1892, hosted in an old XVI-XVII century convent, a massive square plan building called “ La Casa delle Missioni in Via del Portone”, a (judiciary) mental hospital was established in Reggio Emilia.

The (judiciary) psychiatric hospital was the third italian public mental hospital active untill 1991. Later on due to the structure degeneracy, it was moved in a new location.

My duty as, non-professional in love for the photography itself photographer is to try to see what the normal eyes can’t, disclose the invisibile, give voice to whom has none, trasform a non-place in a place.

To see with your own eyes something that is disappearing, transorming, be able to attend and witness the inescapable time flow.

Immortalize smashed windows, chapped walls, remains of lives able to show past times lived behind my house…. rediscover the truth, past times that belong to us, nearly present.

Immortalise a non-place and transform it in a place, in a memory, where every object such as the locks, the grates, the peepholes, the beds, the old papers, the stickers, everything is sedimentation of memories.

In the role of photographer, I prefer abondoned places because they let me live them again, preserve the historical memory, witness the existence and the changes.

Inside these places, the decadence scenery is charming, the rest of human presence impress the imagination with empathy.

30 years ago “Basaglia law “ banned the mental hospitals. One of this structure is still in the historical side of our city. it is decaying and crumbling, it is oozing tears and screaming words of freedom.

With the eye, the best possible lens…

Projects > Mayo Migrante. Reggio Emilia

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Reggio Emilia - May 01 2008. Irregular work, extreme precarious condition, working men’s death: Stop!

We are the women and men who succeed to not suffocate in a container on a truck. We are the women and men who do not drown in the sea. We are the women and men who cross the frontiers in search of a better future.

We are the women and men who work in big cities. We are those who fill the pockets of the illegal part of the economy because for us there is no other possibility to survive. We are obliged to spend a part of our lives lined up in front of the police station and also at the post office. We are the ones who wait at length for the renewal of our resident permits and for our families to join us in this country.

We are those who wait for legal documents from the Embassy and a new law on immigration with higher quotes. We are the mothers who are unable to go and see our children because we do not have a resident permit. We are the same people who work on building sites and are not paid or attacked when we ask for our salaries. We are the peddlers who sell handkerchiefs and cds in parking lots and on the beaches.

We are the women who look after children and elderly people, hired with a part time contract, but we are people who work 24 hours a day. We are those who work as artesans and even partners who are hired as workers. We are those who accept any kind of work under any condition in order to be able to renew that "paper". We are those that without a permit are unable to have a regular job and therefore we support the illegal work force in which the neoliberal economy is based on,which exploits us on building sites or in agriculture.

We are those who live in constant fear of being deported; lower class citizens submitted to a form of slavery thank’s to racism and discriminatory laws. We are those who contribute to illegal rental contracts living in houses no bigger that 30 square meters with as many as 10 people.

We are the "guests" of the C.P.T.

They would like us to be invisible and yet we are men and women who live in Reggio Emilia and have organized ourselves to fight daily for the recognition of the rights which are denied to us. We are tired of working without dignity, we are tired of being considered just numbers and to be constantly afraid of inspections by the labour department which often end in deportation or arrest.

On the 1st of May 2007 we have emerged from being invisibile (which is what "they" would like us to be) and we have walked the streets of Reggio Emilia. Let us join forces to fight for:

• immediate legalization of all foreigners
• abolition of the Bossi-Fini’s law
• the possibility of having a resident permit without a job contract
• access to decent housing and an adecuate salary in order to build our future
• the immediate shut down of all CPTs
• Everyone says no to the prejudice that all foreigners are criminals. Everyone says no to work "off the book". Let’s put a stop to our hard life!

Città Migrante - Reggio Emilia

Projects > The revolutionary women of Caffè Babele

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"All those of the same generation as me have had to experience a war…
But this is a very special war.
Because this time it was not men who had to go fight, but the women.
And even if I believe that war isn’t for a woman, we are here to fight, but I am not a hero, I am sure of this."

From the play "Grido Silenzioso" from Federica Zambelli.

Portraits of the revolutionary women of Caffe’ Babele. A free place were women from Eastern Europe and migrants can meet and socialize.
It is a project of Ya Basta Reggio Emilia in collaboration with MeltinPot Europa.

Each Sunday , in the parking lot in front of the Laboratorio AQ16, men and women from Moldavia and Ucraina gather to send goods and private correspondence to their relatives in the country of their origin. Caffe’ Babele was created as a free meeting place for migrants, and in particular for women from Moldavia and Ucraina who work as assistants to old people in Reggio Emilia.

Caffe’ Babele welcome migrants with and without work permits, as it doesn’t make the individual feel discrminated.

In Caffe’ Babele no human being is considered "illegal", as  citizenship but is considered to be a universal right

Projects > We don't squeal. We are not spies

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In the center for the health of the immigrant family (Reggio Emilia, Italy), the doctors, the nurses and the intercultural mediators have stuck fast to the campaign "We don´t squeal. We are not spies", launched by Médecins Sans Frontières against the proposal of law in Italy that forces the doctors and nurses to denouncing the persons without documents.

"The safety package " of the government Berlusconi was approved a few months ago, and though the point of obligation of denouncing on the part of the doctors was not approved, it proposes to define the situation of secrecy as a crime, resulting that the doctors can choose freely and subjectively if they want to denounce sick persons for the simple fact of which they are undocumented.

All that might take one " marginalización sanitary " of a good part of the immigrant population, and there moves along the risk of generating a parallel health among the immigrants, of slowing down even more the functioning of the ambulatory and hospitals and of threatening to the collective health. The center for the health of the immigrant family was opened in Reggio Emilia (Italy) in October, 1998 by the Sanitary Local Company and by Cáritas, to face social and sanitary problematics of the immigrants without documents, which cannot register in the sanitary national service. The center receives all these persons and there they can be attended by medical personnel, do examinations, obtain information about the rights and the duties of the maternity, infantile and familiar.

From the beginning, an important resource of this center was the presence of intercultural mediators, that now more than ever play a very important role, being the figure that shortens the distances among the immigrant population and the services of health.