Gianluca Costantini, author of the now famous drawing portraying Patrick Zaki published in support of the battle for Patrick Zaki’s release and exhibited in many public spaces, the first one being Piazza Maggiore in Bologna, donates his work to the MAMbo collections and to the city of Bologna . The donation will occur during a public meeting on Monday 6th June 2022 at 6.00 pm in the conference room of the museum.
Speakers:
Elena Di Gioia, delegate of the mayor for Culture of Bologna and the Metropolitan City
Lorenzo Balbi, MAMbo director
Rita Monticelli, professor of English literature, University of Bologna
Gianluca Costantini, artist
Patrick Zaki, student, attending via video
On 7th February 2020 Patrick Zaki, a brilliant Egyptian student who had previously been admitted to the GEMMA Master’s Degree at the University of Bologna, was arrested in Egypt while on vacation at his home place. There are no available public images of the activist who was arrested for crimes of opinion and later held in jail waiting for his trial for 22 months. Gianluca Costantini portrays him taking inspiration from a photo and retweets the image depicting an incarcerated Patrick with a beard and glasses, wrapped in barbed wire, and adding the text “Freedom for Patrick Zaki”. The image is picked up by others and bounces between social and traditional media, Amnesty International adopts it for its campaign, till it is exhibited in large format in Bologna, in Piazza Maggiore, on the facade of Palazzo dei Notai and, later, under the two towers symbol of the city. From that moment on, the picture became the emblem of the fight for Patrick Zaki’s release, in which Bologna and its University are active on the front line.
By the will of the author, who will discuss it with the other guests on Monday 6 June at MAMbo, the drawing will remain permanently in the city of Bologna in the collection of its contemporary art museum. During the meeting it will be possible to see and hear Patrick Zaki on video, also in view of the next hearing of the judicial process in Egypt, scheduled for June 28, 2022.
Free admission subject to availability.
The event takes place in compliance with the safety and health protection regulations in force on the date of the event.
