When the wounded womb of a mother speaks loudly than words

                                                                      “Ritratti di pancia” (“Belly portraits”)

                                                                 The new photographic project of Gisella Congia

                                                            from Monday, December 14, 2015, online launch event

 Not only the vocal cords have the power to create vibrations and give voice to our thoughts and emotions. There are other parts of the body that sometimes can express empathy even better: the eyes, the lips, the hands, and the womb, the vital center of a woman’s permanent center of gravity.

The belly smiles, cries, worries, suffers, protects and gives life.

Gisella Congia is an Italian photographer, from the island of Sardinia, who is already well known for her portraits of motherhood, “Chiaroscuri della maternità” (“The light and dark sides of motherhood”) and “Me, the imperfect mother”. Recently Congia has dedicated to the belly her new series of portraits that describe the experience of having a C-section better than million words could do.

Her new intensely emotional project called “Ritratti di pancia” was born out of Congia’s encounter with several women, who gave birth via C-section. Congia’s works reveals how for these women having a C-section has become a physical and emotional wound. An experience that made these women feel like “half mothers”, who cheated their way out of natural childbirth, which remains, in their minds, the solely and ultimate way to achieve real motherhood.

Congia’s project does not aim to condemn the C-section procedure. On the other hand Congia shares these women’s experiences, as a way to help them in finally seeing themselves as complete and “legitimate” mothers.

“Ritratti di pancia“ will be presented online on December 14, 2015.  Following its debut, Congia’s video-photographic project, which includes images and testimonies of the women participating to this unique artistic endeavor, will remain available online and everybody will be able to support it with private donations.

The project is a production of the “L’Eptacordio” association with the collaboration of the bloggers Enrica Costa, Deborah Papisca di www.oasidellemamme.it