EMOTIONS TO GENERATE CHANGE


WOMEN'S CRY
LISTENING TO TRANSFORM LIVES

by Lia and Marianna Beltrami

An extraordinary photographic journey from the world, reflecting the words of Pope Francis in the encyclical Fratelli Tutti (FT).

Sometimes photos manage to look inside us, to open the eyes of our heart to ourselves, to transform us by revealing the secret of seeing beyond appearances. Theirs is a silent cry that breaks through indifference. Which reveals the beauty. And it revives it. Which seizes suffering, and makes it scream. The images that make up the exhibition "Women’s Cry" have this power, this dynamism. They are not static. They don't freeze the moment. They demand a change, first of all in whoever looks at them. They set in motion something that doesn't stop. They question us. And they leave us without answers, changed. Able to see with the heart. “To look – repeats the Pope – is not only to see, it is more; it also involves intention, will.” The compassion of suffering with. Of sharing. For this reason, it is one of the verbs of love. Looking at these photos will help us rediscover how fragile, yet great we are. How we are different, yet equal. Apparently distant yet united by a single destiny.

Paolo Ruffini

Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication 

Approximately 6 million women constitute the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organisations. They have set out to give visibility to women who, for many, seem invisible. This exhibition gathers some of their sufferings and strengths, the discrimination suffered and the resilience shown, through the first steps of the World Women’s Observatory. Communication through beauty. This is our language. Contemplating these artistic photos, we can be seduced by their message. Their beauty can captivate our aesthetic sensibility reaching the core of our person, where mind and heart come together. And reframe the sanctuary of our conscience. A reflection of Fratelli tutti. “Women’s Cry” is like an echo of the dream of Pope Francis. Its words accompany the photos of women from different continents, religions and cultures. The interrelation between the photos and the phrases encourages an open path towards universal fraternity, the goal of our humanity.

Maria Lía Zervino, Servidora

WUCWO / UMOFC President

Can a photo portray the often hidden cry of women around the world? Can something apparently static and frozen in time tell the movement of those who seek justice and equality? Eight photographers from different parts of the world have tried to do so, taking us on an intense journey that crosses the gazes of women, girls, children, elderly people all over the planet. The captured moments speak of stories, of journeys, of social, environmental and intergenerational justice. The exhibition is part of "Emotions to Generate Change", the place-non-place where art touches the deepest emotions and pushes for personal and social change. With the World Women's Observatory, we set off to look for the right shots, we met many of the women portrayed and tried to tell their story, from the Amazonia to Bangladesh, from Turkey to Togo, from Greece to the Ukrainian border. Together with some emblematic phrases from the encyclical Fratelli tutti, the shots create a space for listening and transformation, typical activities of the Observatory. The viewer will be able to notice an exchange between his own eye, the shot and the Pope's phrase: sometimes a direct connection, others bringing out the contrast of a smile, a bold colour or a playful act and the reality of inequality and injustice that surrounds the subject. In this way, art – which has always been an exchange between gazes and spaces – can generate and foster change. Women's Cry wants to be part of this process by showing the strength of the female gaze, a gaze of connection and relationality, and suggesting that a healthy society is only possible when there is no discrimination of gazes, a mission that must be felt by everyone for the wellbeing of everyone.

Lia Beltrami

Art director