The first stage of the traveling exhibition ValUEs: a Journey around Discrimination and EU Values will open on March 25, 2023 in Cinisello Balsamo. The opening will be at 11 a.m. at the ground floor of the Pertini Cultural Center, which will host it until April 12.

This is the outcome of the European project "Val.UE.s | Valorizing Lives & Understanding European (hi)Stories," funded by the European CERV program, with the aim of raising awareness of discrimination among the younger generation, conducting a survey on the issue in the Europe of totalitarianism and stimulating reflection on discrimination today. The Municipality of Cinisello Balsamo is a partner in the project along with Consorzio Sapienza Innovazione (lead partner) and Istituto Luigi Sturzo of Rome, Lorand Eotvos University of Budapest (Hungary), University of Bucharest (Romania) and University of Kaunas (Lithuania).

The exhibition was supervised by the European Projects Department of the Municipality of Cinisello Balsamo in collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Photography and with the participation of students from a 4th grade class of the G. Casiraghi High School in Cinisello Balsamo. At the end of the exhibition, Values will continue its journey in the other cities of the partnership: Rome, Budapest, Bucharest and Kaunas.

The exhibition tour consists of images, texts and video-interview extracts collected from the different partner countries on the topic of discrimination, treated from both historical and contemporary perspectives. Each partner, in fact, has interpreted the topic by now giving more emphasis to a historical-scientific reading of the selected images, now orienting to a more personal and subjective reading.

In order to collect and select the exhibits, the Municipality of Cinisello Balsamo involved a class from local high schools through PCTO-Percorsi per le Competenze Trasversali e l’Orientamento. During three days of workshops organized with the Museum of Contemporary Photography, students carried out group activities and conducted research on the project’s themes. Moments of reflection on historical discrimination and critical reading of images were preparatory for co-conducting video interviews with people who have suffered discrimination of various kinds or are spokespeople for it. Once they got into the thick of selecting images and video excerpts for the exhibition, the children were guided through the processes of curating, communication and tours.

Click here to download the exhibition opening poster:

Exhibition opening poster