“The Battle of the Women. Portraits of women and the strength of their battle”, this is the title of the project signed by Tricostarc Onlus, which will be presented today, December 7, at 6 pm, in an event at the MAXXI – National Museum of XXI Century Arts in Via Guido Reni, in Rome. A 2023 calendar made of strong images, capable of evoking tough battles, fought by women who have not surrendered to their own disease and who have been able to claim the right to one’s femininity. A Calendar that has the intention of making people aware of the themes of art and beauty, in the delicate phase of therapy and treatment of an aggressive disease such as cancer. The photographs that make it up, for this sixth edition of the project, were taken by the famous photographer from Palermo Joy Battlea warrior in name and in fact, who recently passed away due to a tumor, but not before having given us all a testimony of her art and of the strength of women in fighting monsters bigger than them.
Protagonists of this afternoon’s event at MAXXI will be i stories of patients operated on for cancer, who fight against the disease even “with a brush”, thanks to a newfound acceptance of themselves and their bodies. The portraits of the calendar are in fact those of women suffering from oncological pathologies, currently in therapy. Interventions recounting the photographic Battaglia will also alternate with testimonials from personalities from the world of culture and entertainment, and the voices of clinicians and experts in oncology and trichology in oncology. “The sixteen images of the publication – explained Giusy Giambertone, president of Tricostarc Onlus -, and the other shots that Letizia Battaglia left us of that service, bear witness to an exceptional encounter and welcome the point of view of an extraordinary person in her triple dress of woman, patient and artist. With our solidarity trichology projects in the oncological field, we intend to turn the spotlight on a little-considered aspect, that of hair, which instead has a fundamental importance, to say the least, for both men and women. To do this, we involve two groups of communities in our projects: the first is that of people who suffer, the world of patients who approach the disease and therapy for the first time, a therapy which – as we know – consists of chemotherapy treatment, with side effects that are difficult to manage. Among the most feared there is precisely the hair loss: it is no coincidence that today about 8% of women refuse treatment chemotherapy out of fear of side effects and especially this side effect. And this is because since the dawn of time hair has been a symbol of female seduction and male virility. In short, hair identifies us”.
President Giambertone, earlier you spoke of two communities involved in the project. What’s the second?
“The second is that of clinicians. The project has in fact been supported for years by most of the national hospitals. A necessary path that Tricostarc has undertaken for over eleven years, through the Tricostarc Onlus and the commitment to the Prometeus Foundation, which for six years now has also been told through a Calendar, whose models are precisely women who are facing the difficult path treatment of cancer and its effects. Hair loss is a nudity that is difficult to accept, moreover at a time when the part of identity gives way to fear of uncertainty towards the future”.
How can Tricostar Onlus help these people?
“In our projects we combine function and beauty, basing our action on a few pillars: one is that of the Banca della Parrucca, i.e. the creation of wigs that are entrusted to patients on free loan. This process began about twelve years ago with the San Giovanni hospital in Rome, but is increasingly spreading to other Italian hospitals as well. A virtuous circle that has favored another of the pillars of our projects, namely the donation of hair, a gesture of great solidarity for which there are people who literally deprive themselves of a part of themselves to support other women in difficulty, but who above all, it allows to reduce one of the highest costs in the production of prostheses: that of the raw material, the hair, in fact, allowing the cost of the wig to be limited to manufacturing only”.
President, why did you think about projects of this type?
“Everything started from my personal change of pace. I belong to the fifth generation of a family of entrepreneurs who have always dealt with hair, prostheses, wigs, whose business was born, moreover, in Sicily. And I returned to Sicily this year, in an ideal closing of the circle, for this incredible collaboration with the great Sicilian photographer who in the calendar bears witness to a mission shared by me, by my collaborators, most recently Monica Magini for the project Hair Smile: that is, to offer intangible support to women who also face hair loss, alongside the other outcomes of a terrible disease. With projects like the calendar we can make them ‘divas for a day’, indeed, for a year. And to help them rediscover their beauty, to re-enter the world of work and social life with confidence, to get out of that suspended bubble where the disease relegates them”.
Carolina Marconi testimonial of Tricostarc Onlus
Even the actress Carolina Marconiwho experienced the disease on his own skin, supports the Tricostarc Onlus project and invites you to participate in this afternoon’s event (to participate: [email protected]): “It will be a beautiful evening where get together, united for the sixth edition of the Tricostarc 2023 oncology calendar, after many battles fought. I can’t wait – she said – to see all the photos taken by Letizia Battaglia, who is now our guardian angel, with all the beautiful female warriors who have been models. It will be an evening full of hope, strength, sharing and also, why not, fun. We will talk about the battle of women, their courage, because the truth is that you must never give up”.
During last Monday’s presentation press conference, the objectives achieved by the project over time were instead the subject of the testimony of the patient Simona Morelli, who recounting her personal experience of the disease, underlined the importance of right to beauty and of the project Hair Smile on hair donation, as well as his own involvement: “Every moment of this initiative was like a dream for me, like something that literally made me forget that black on white that was written by my pathology”.