Child Abuse: Contemporary Art Film-Exhibition Against Child Violence

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the transformation of a planned Bologna exhibition into a 'filmostra' (film-exhibition) titled Child Abuse, featuring 15 contemporary artists including Maurizio Cattelan, Giosetta Fioroni, and James Rielly. Curated by Eleonora Frattarolo, the project is part of the European ProChild initiative coordinated by the University of Bologna, with support from IRCCS Policlinico di S. Orsola and Genus Bononiae. Musei nella Città. It aims to spotlight child violence, noting that over 100,000 children in Italy are victims annually, with one-third of abuses occurring at home—a situation worsened by pandemic lockdowns. The film-exhibition, directed by Davide Mastrangelo, includes works such as Cattelan's Cuore, Pezzo di ricambio and Fioroni's Autoritratto a nove anni. It is available on prochildproject.org, aosp.bo.it, and piattaformaventiventi.genusbononiae.it. ProChild is a two-year project funded by the European Commission's Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (2014-2020) and led by Professor Marcello Lanari.