Elisa Iannacone, Great Britain / Mexico
Elisa Iannacone studied in Toronto and London, worked as a photo reporter in Jordan and Iraq, in Egypt and other African countries. She has travelled in 75 countries, created large exhibitions and participated in festivals.
They suffer from severe chronic kidney problems or are waiting for a heart transplant: little patients in the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital, South Africa. Much, maybe everything, that defines childhood – growing up carefree and with fun – is beyond their reach.
But surely they have wishes, desires, dreams. Only, how to express them?
Photographer and multimedia artist Elisa L. Iannacone had an enchanting answer. She specializes in visualizing people’s visions in comprehensive collages. She is a woman of whom you can say she can heal broken wings. With magic stage sets that help the insured to gather new strength.
And make dreams come true – even if just for minutes. To be able to eat all the cake in the world? To become a Formula One pilot. A diva, a dancing queen. To experience the intoxication of carnival. To float up into the air. No problem!
The boys and girls in Mandela Hospital, as well as the hospital team itself, got kidnapped by Elisa L. Iannacone. Liberated through imagination and play. The beds: suddenly props in a wonderland. The pain: overcome with laughter. The sadness: reversed into cheerfulness. The fight: turned into peace.
Elisa L. Iannacone, born in Mexico to a Mexican mother and a Canadian father, saw herself as a “translator” from an early age. At first for her parents, who could barely speak the language of the other, then in her international career as a photographer as the voice of those who had lost theirs to grief. The victims of war and sexual violence. She has witnessed death, rape and destruction directly and from close quarters.
Ever since she has worked on overcoming trauma. Against apathy. Against empathy fatigue. And against the feeling of tortured people that they are an island. Alone. She wants to build bridges for them. To others. And to a new feeling of self-worth. She hopes that her films, her photographs may heal people.
Iannacone studied in Toronto and London, worked as a photo reporter in Jordan and Iraq, in Egypt and other African countries. She has travelled in 75 countries, created large exhibitions and participated in festivals.
And when you watch her videos, like when she hangs cheerfully off a cliff and talks in a relaxed manner that the likes of us could only achieve on a sofa, you think: This dynamic, unwavering woman can be trusted to make many more people happier.
And help them to find peace despite hard misfortunes.
(Laudatio by Peter-Matthias Gaede)