The photographic and multimedia exhibition "Obiettivo Afghanistan - The Land After the War" opens the 5th edition of Travel Literature Festival, promoted by Italian Geographic Society and Federculture (www.festivaletteraturadiviaggio.it). The exhibition is focused on narrating the life of the people of Afghanistan through many facets: historical and cultural, religious and spiritual, of arts and crafts, of daily life, of the many ethnicities, of pride and poverty, of traditions and suffering, of denied rights and the battle for liberty.

The photographic exhibition is comprised of 62 photographs, comprised of the works of four great international photographers, that express different looks and sensibility, telling his and her stories of Afghanistan: Monika Bulaj, REZA, Riccardo Venturi, Zalmai. A quadruple look that speaks, Polish, Farsi, Italian and Dary.

It is not easy to tell the story in an accessible way to everyone of a country as complex as Afghanistan yet photography is certainly the more immediate and engaging, means to communicate to the public a world very diverse from our own. Women, children, elderly, common people, workers and those in hunger, Afghani soldiers and refugees that move and live in large spaces, infinite skies and mountains, city and village or camps through the photographs of these four great European and Asian photographers.

The photographs of Monika Bulaj show Afghani women in their intimacy, in their family life, describing with a click the dream or the despair, the pain or the concentration in prayer, the physical suffering or the getting together, with the sensitivity and marvelous light, or Nur, who characterizes the work of the Author.

Zalmai, Afghani, with his black and white photos tells the story of the country today.  A poor and proud Afghanistan, wounded and dignified, that works and suffers, that wants to revive maintaining its history and reconstruct its liberty with the next generation... Riccardo Venturi speaks mainly of the period of the Taliban, of those years during the Ninties and after under Russian domination and to the civil war between the diverse ethnic groups.  Telling us even him in black and white, an Afghanistan of a medieval flavor, from immense landscapes, free and empty, an Afghanistan where children seldom smile, where the women are prohibited to think other than to study and work.

Finally Reza speaks of all of Afghanistan: of the city, of the villages, of the people, of the children, of the dry and windy dessert and of the infinite mountains where fighting the mujaheddin of the commander Massud, first against the Russian armed wagons then against the Taliban.  Reza with his incredible photographs, captures stories and unforgettable moments, and communicates the emotions, the colors, flavors and odors, the people and language, the overdue spaces of the great country, which is Afghanistan. The texts are from Nicola Minasi. Together the reality of "Afghanistan country" the exhibition with the multimedia section, speaks also of the journey, often dramatic, of the refugees from Afghanistan reaching Italy.  They are the stories, the lives, and the paths of many young Afghanis that arrived and passed through the city of Rome, after having traveled by foot more than 6,000 kilometers.  Making use of contributions from young Italian and Afghani video makers and photographers like Martina Chichi, Paolo Martino, Francesca Mancini, Dawood Yousefi, with a montage by Matteo Minasi.  The texts of Carla Ciavarella and of Paolo Martino. 

Riccardo Venturi is the curator of the exhibition, Nicola Minasi and Donata Pacces are  creator and director of the project, and some of the inventors of the cultural association DIALOGANDO.

Dialogando is a cultural association, apolitical not-for-profit that supports the knowledge and debate of larger themes and dialogues between people through the promotion of the arts, to combine in one look at topics with international themes with immediate reflections into the lives of everyday. The exhibition "Obiettivo Afghanistan: The Land After the War" is the first initiative of the association.

Dialogando thanks, amongst others, for their active collaboration Fabrizio Patriarca, administrative responsibilities, The lawyer Sara Lusi for her advice on Afghani minors, Velerio Zaccagnini for the project graphics, Monica Laurentini for working with the Festival della Letteratura di Viaggio together with Lodovico Tommasi and Flavia Scarperia for international relations.

With contribution of the Consiglio Regional of Lazio and of ENEL.  With Patrocinio of the Presidenza of the Consiglio of the Province of Rome to the section on minors.  They have collaborated Afghana, Tree of Life, Intersos, YER Young European Reformists.

The exhibition will remain open until the 28th of October, Palazzio Esposizioni, Spazio "Fontana", via Milano 13, everyday from 10am-8pm, except Monday.  Free entry.