Communications

The defeat of grey through colors. Down with Grey! could not be a more cheerfully symbolic title for a show which marks the overcoming of hardship by virtue of energy and hope and, in addition, teaches how overcoming one's own hardship can help to alleviate that of other people.

Organized by the Comunità di Sant?Egidio, Down with Grey!, the exhibition reached its ninth year and was held in Rome - in the setting of the piazza del Popolo, splendidly artistic in itself - from September 29 to October 2, 2005.

A rich intersection of colors and needs, the exhibition saw a good 500 disabled artists show works with the far from accidental theme of "Continent Africa".

The initiative, which crosses art and solidarity, has, in fact, used the proceeds from the sale of pictures to support the Dream (Drug Resource Enhancement against Aids and Malnutrition) program, a free Aids prevention and treatment project which the Comunità di Sant'Egidio began in 2000 in Mozambique and then extended to many African countries, and which numbers Finmeccanica, too, amongst its backers.

Alongside its role as a joyful joint kermis, the exhibition also had a competitive slant: a prize, awarded by the artists themselves, went to The Force of Prayer by Gelsomina Salate Santone, whilst Africa Squeezed by Donatella Fabri and Sonia Sospirato is the picture which was awarded the critics' prize.

A third prize, awarded by a popular jury via the exhibition's Internet site, then went to Ethnic Groups, a joint work created by Rosa Billera, Katia Buccinnà, Gabriella Tagliarino, Elena Massa, Tobia Ferrandino, Samanta Famiani, Luigi Funedda and Riccardo Gazzillo.