The Milky Way 3: A Suitcase for 1000 Days

The Milky Way is back, a collective fundraising exhibition curated by Damiana Leoni in aid of Pianoterra onlus, an association set up in Naples in 2008 to lend care and support to the most vulnerable families.

Following the first edition held at Lia Rumma gallery in Naples and the second edition held at Galleria Studio SALES di Norberto Ruggeri in Rome, “The Milky Way 3 – A suitcase for 1000 days” is coming to Milan, where it will be hosted at Gió Marconi gallery for one day only on Thursday, 10th November 2016 from 12.30-21.30 p.m.

This year 38 artists will be taking part in the charity project in support of pregnant women, mothers who have just given birth, and babies born into poverty or marginality. Each artist has agreed to take part in the project, making his works available for fundraising in favour of the 1000 Days programme organised by Pianoterra onlus: an integrated class action programme for pregnant women, women with newly born babies, and very small babies born in marginalised or culturally impoverished conditions, which is being organised by Pianoterra in partnership with ACP (Paediatricians Cultural Association) and Associazione Antropos onlus. The 1000 Days programme works on the assumption that improving early-life conditions by offering grassroots support and care could prevent a number of health and developmental problems and stop them from being passed on from generation to generation. The symbol of the 1000 Days project is a Maternity Suitcase, a tool designed by Pianterra inspired by the famous Finnish Baby Box aimed at getting pregnant women living in tough and deprived circumstances involved in the programme. It contains all the essentials for both mother and newly born baby and is handed over to women (right after they had given birth) who have followed a complete maternity program from the fourth month of pregnancy onwards: the medical visits and examinations recommended by the National Health Service, a maternity and parenthood training course, and also meetings with specialists to look at specific issues.

Inspired by the Maternity Suitcase, the theme of this third edition is ‘the bare essentials’: objects, images and emotions you cannot do without. The artists have generously created and donated works linked with this subject to lean their support to the project. If you buy one of the works on display at “The Milky Way 3 exhibition”, you will be part of a programme – open to everybody supporting the 1000 Days project – aimed at involving all those who believe that culture means participation, a means of social cohesion and growth.

“The Milky Way 3” is actually a contemporary art project: more than anybody else, artists create different perspectives on reality and possible worlds and provide solutions to often unanswerable questions. “The Milky Way 3” is a completely inclusive project: everybody will have the chance to support the 1000 Days project in different ways, helping struggling mothers and children by “filling the suitcase” with miscellaneous essentials and, most significantly, becoming supporters of Pianoterra onlus’s activities.

Participating artists:  Alfredo Aceto, Luigi Anastasio, Francesco Arena, Micol Assaël, Darren Bader, Rosa Barba, Manfredi Beninati, Monica Bonvicini, Giorgio Andreotta Calò, Roberto Coda Zabetta, Benny Chirco, Liz Craft, Linda Fregni Nagler, Fabio Giorgi Alberti, Piero Golia, Hilario Isola, Allison Katz, Heinz Peter Knes, Adriana Lara, Deborah Ligorio, Diego Marcon, Matteo Nasini, Caterina Nelli and Saam Schlamminger, Nunzio, Giorgio Orbi, Oliver Osborne, Adrian Paci, Charlemagne Palestine, Jorge Peris, Tomás Saraceno, Francesco Simeti, Spencer Sweeney, Santo Tolone, Alessandro Twombly, Nico Vascellari, Francesco Vezzoli, Sislej Xhafa.