The shots taken inside the Covid-hospital in Cuorgnè last January will be exhibited in the external windows of the Public Relations Office of the regional council in via Arsenale at the corner of via Lascaris in Turin from 14 April to 14 May.
CUORGNÈ On the occasion of March 18, the first national day in memory of the victims of the Covid-19 epidemic, the regional council has released a preview video on its social networks and on the website of the exhibition “R-We exist with humanity”, a gallery of black and white images taken by photographer Piero Nizzia di Valperga inside the Cuorgnè hospital dedicated since the end of last October exclusively to medium-intensity Covid patients.
The shots taken inside the Covid-hospital in Cuorgnè last January will be exhibited in the external windows of the Public Relations Office of the regional council in via Arsenale at the corner of via Lascaris in Turin from 14 April to 14 May. “The professional orders that represent the healthcare personnel in the Piedmont area – said Stefano Allasia, president of the regional council – will be awarded, as soon as the conditions are right, the honor of the presidency of the regional council for civil merits, to honor their work, ‘commitment, professionalism and sacrifice shown during 2020, in the first phase of the Covid-19 pandemic ».
The Nizzia project was born in recent months and will materialize in an exhibition in Cuorgnè.
How was the initiative born? «Let’s say that she was born as a citizen – says Nizzia – before as a photographer. For months now, the Cuorgnè hospital has closed the emergency room and has been reserved for Covid patients. I know how to tell with the camera and I said to myself that I would have liked to show the hospital’s activities to raise awareness of the importance of this structure, which is so important for our territory. One way to say: it is enough to diminish this structure, it must be valued because it belongs to all of us ».
Nizzia explains that her goal was to tell about the humanity, the complexity of the work in this period, the care of patients. “I want to make it clear that it is a hospital – he says – that serves our community and must be put in a position to act at best”. Nizzia’s project quickly took off. “It liked it – he says – and the regional council also liked it”. Getting all the permits to take photos inside the hospital wasn’t easy. There were three photographic sessions. The first impression? “Fear, tension, fear. We are all covered, as in a diving suit – he underlines -. One understands how one has to deal with something underhanded. It is not an obvious danger, like a fire, a flood. It is an invisible danger, which gives anguish, paralyzes you ». Still taking pictures was not like a normal photo shoot. “Frames, shots, there’s no time to build the image,” he remembers. Inside the hospital, despite diving suits, pain, fatigue, suffering, Nizzia says she has found humanity. Some patients also appear in the photos: «There was a desire to communicate, to share». –