I Muri del Silenzio

To coincide with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, ten gondolas parade along the Grand Canal giving the public ten black and white photographic images, inviting them to reflect on the silence that too often accompanies countless stories of daily violence.

Realised with the patronage of the City of Venice and in collaboration with the Associazione Gondolieri, the flash mob summons to the heart of the city a theme of pressing topicality, brought into focus through the lens of Mjriam Bon’s camera. The images that cross the Venetian waters are part of a series of 35 black and white shots whose subjects are portrayed in the act of covering their eyes, ears, or mouths, in a direct restitution of the three stages of silence – I do not see, I do not hear, I do not speak. Well-known figures from the worlds of show business, music, sport, and politics stand alongside ordinary people in an artistic action of awareness-raising and denunciation that challenges people to look, listen, speak, and not look the other way.