Hotel Bel sit, Stories of Migrants

"It takes months, sometimes years to get the final refugee permission. Many migrants remain unarmed waiting, someone runs off aimlessly, others inevitably end up in the clutches of the caporalates of southern Italy and become slaves. There are many events that migrants live every day. Under certain circumstances they intertwine, sometimes they travel on different tracks. But each of them has its own sad story to tell. There are those who land directly on the Italian coast and reunited with relatives or acquaintances. There are those who continue, among a thousand vicissitudes, towards northern Europe. There are those who end up "standed" when it is almost over, in the stations of some big city. There are also those who find a job in black in construction or agriculture in the north-east of our country. There are those who only dream of a better life, bukra inshallah! Someone falls in love and gets married. There are those who receive a greeting, Salam Aleikum, and a hand on the heart. Someone decides to return to Africa, forever. Someone sleeps for a few nights in a small garden of the Catania station, then gets on a bus with destination and Milan terminal. Someone in Milan does not stop and continues, despite the fog and the bitter cold. Someone is lucky and finds a "home" in one of the many hotels run by the cooperatives. In Mortara there is one: Hotel Bel Sit, a star. "

So writes Giovanni Mereghetti, photojournalist, to present "Hotel Bel Sit, Stories of Migrants". A project born from the attendance of this reception in Mortara managed by the Cooperative Faber who has been passionate about it for almost five years; since the meeting with these children has ignited in him the need for a narration that could embrace the different stories of these "contemporary Ulysses".
The photographs of Giovanni Mereghetti thus become a concrete opportunity to directly involve the protagonists who will accompany you through this photographic exhibition on a journey into their stories, experiences occurred to arrive in our country.
A unique opportunity in which visual art offers itself as an instrument at the service of exchange, of communication to abolish the distances - individual and collective - in search of the sense that binds the whole of humanity.
The exhibition will be accompanied by the book "Hotel Bel Sit, stories of migrants" with texts and photos by Giovanni Mereghetti. The proceeds from the sale of this book will finance the activities and projects of the Faber Cooperative.
Alessia Locatelli


"HOTEL BEL SIT, STORIES OF MIGRANTS"
Photographs by Giovanni Mereghetti
Curated by Alessia Locatelli
With the patronage of the municipality6 - Municipality of Milan
in collaboration with Cooperativa Faber
and MEDICI SENZA FRONTIERE

Inauguration Tuesday, September 25th at 6.30pm
From 26 September to 9 October 2018

Events organized within the exhibition:
September 27th at 9.00 pm: Round table with the sociologist Alfredo Alietti and the presence of the staff of MEDICI SENZA FRONTIERE on migration, human rights and inclusion.

Ex-Fornace
Alzaia Naviglio Pavese 16, 20143 Milan
Timetables:
Monday to Saturday from 9:30 to 17:00
Sunday from 10 to 18.30