Passaggio a Nord Est

Abstract
In 2015, the Balkan migration route became one of the main entrances to the European Union for migrants from the Middle East. Within the Italian reception system different professional figures are activated and social workers are some of the main actors. Those who should make the principles of protection and protection of asylum seekers concrete.
The high expenditure of emotional and physical energy that this work entails generates an intertwining of private and professional space that if not controlled can evolve into Burnout Syndrome.

Exhibition Setup
The layout of the exhibition Passage to the Northeast is simple and straightforward. The theme of waiting lists, long and sometimes resolution-less bureaucratic processes, translate into gridded, schematic and impersonal corridors, as if each story were nothing more than a list of cases to be filed.
The singularity, heaviness, cataloguing and the feeling of “being stuck in an invisible prison” for indefinite time were translated into the design of the display: a grid squeezed between two concrete perforations.

As photographic details of everyday life, follow one another in a feeling of suspension, viewers observe the photographs in front of a gridded door, wedged between two bricks, sometimes glimpsing the faces of opposing viewers as if imprisoned.

Although the exhibition route is free, viewers respect the open aisles, proceeding step by step, case by case. In the background a projection, takes up the cover of the photo book in its animated version: the coordinates of the Balkan Route that migrants from the Middle East follow to get to Trieste.

Informal interviews with social workers recorded by Luca Pradella during the photographic survey period unfold in the background. Their testimonies serve as a backdrop, leading the visitor to sensitize with this labor figure.

Finally, a stage was created, a symbolic space, made of small holes joined by a strap and a carabiner. An improvised and popular stage to give voice to those who need to speak.
Together with the willingness and collaboration of Mirko Baccichetto, a social worker from the New Neighbors Association in Pordenone, it was possible to share some moments of direct testimony with the audience on the stage.

Second edition
On the occasion of “World Refugee Day 2022” in Pordenone, Passaggio a Nord Est was revived, renewed in form, as a photographic exhibition in collaboration with Cooperativa Nuovi Vicini Pordenone. The event testifies to a renewed need for awareness and information about the figure of the social worker.