An Unusual Venice - Giorgio Schirato

Yesterday, on 4 September 2026, a new photography exhibition was inaugurated at the Toaldi Capra palazzo in Schio. The exhibition has works of a young Venetian Giorgio Schirato. 

His images of Venice are about stillness, where the silky smooth water and gentle pastel colours become frozen in a dreamscape. You see a city that still has the magic of Venice, but is different. Some of his other pictures, catch the light in such a way that makes you see something which otherwise you would not have noted. It is a beautiful exhibition.

After the inauguration, I had a brief talk with the photographer Giorgio Schirato (GS), which is presented below. If you are in or around Schio, do not miss this exhibition. If you can't come to the exhibition, take a look at his webpage and his Instagram page to have an idea about his works.

You can click on all the images for a bigger view - these Venice images are by Giorgio Schirato and are protected by copyright.

Talking With Venetian Photographer Giorgio Schirato 

 

SD: Tell me about yourself

GS: I was born in Treviso and when I was three years old, with my mother I went to live in Venice, and I grew up there. We were not in proper Venice, since we lived in Lido island for the first 20-25 years of my life. Only when I joined the famous Venice art school, Academia delle Belle Arti, then I shifted to proper Venice. There, I was sharing a house with some friends.

I had chosen the area of sculpture, as my focus in the art school. While I was studying it, I knew that actually I really wanted to do photography, I was already passionate about it. In the end, photography became my preferred way of creative expression.

Probably because I prefer expressing myself through things that are quick and making sculptures had become a kind of suffering for me, because they needed months of work. So slowly I started experimenting with photography. I like all the different ways of artistic expression, including painting, but I chose photography because I liked it the most.

However, instead of photo-documentation, which means documenting what you see around yourself, I always try to express something extra through my photography. For example, I can use the light - such as using a torch at night to obtain a specific effect that I want. Or by using long exposition times, so that the day-landscapes start looking different - they become a kind of aseptic, clean, smooth.

I am moved by a desire to see and interpret Venice as something which I feel inside myself. I want to absorb the beauty of our Venetian landscapes through stillness and in these kind of photographs, I want to avoid the human presence, so that I can focus on the essence of the place.

I want to express something which is different from the usual images of Venice. Therefore, I am not looking at the well-known city landmarks, instead I want to show you the glimpses of something, which you wouldn't see when you are here.

SD: On your website there are some folders showing different series of photographs, for example there are some showing silhouettes. You want to talk about different kinds of your work?

GS: My poetic photography, if I may call it that, can be grossly divided into 2 main types:

- first is the contemplative and experimental kind of images, where I use colour-photography, I study the site and then plan them to get a specific effect;

- the second are my images in black and white, they have a more graphic impact, through them I try to capture the moment, so these images are more immediate, less planned.

 

I capture both these kinds of images with the help of a tripod, but I try to vary other factors, such as the light, to get a specific effect. My images are not a representation of the reality, they are my interpretation of it. 

SD: How long you have been doing photography?

GS: This exhibition is showing the artistic part of my photography, which I have been doing now for about 25 years. It started as a passion when I was in high school.

At the same time, I am also a professional photographer since 2012, where I do specific kinds of photographic services. You can see examples of some of these works on my website.

SD: In these last 25 years, how do you see your evolution as a photographer-artist? 

GS: I have changed over the years, also because of the professional work that I have done. My professional work brought me in contact with a large number of persons, especially artists with their own ideas and long experiences, and interaction with them gives me new ideas and suggestions into my work. Some of those persons have influenced me as an artist.

 

However, my search to find my way of being a photographer, has been more through silence and interiority, and not so much through describing or discussing with others.

There are days, when I am inclined towards black and white photography, other days when I am more contemplative, and I look for specific effects, and finally there are some days when I just do not feel like clicking any pictures. When I wake up in the morning, I know that day, what kind of work I am going to do. There are days when I can see things that are not visible on other days, it may be something to do with my focus, concentration and inspiration, because it requires me to look beyond what my eyes can see.

It can also depend upon the light of that day. One day, the light may be such that I can't see anything special. On another day, the light may be such that even a simple thing looks different and has a more fascinating impact. One has to train oneself to really see, to discover the surroundings.

 

There are some days when I wake up with a desire to capture people and action. On other days, I just want to walk around in my city, to get inspiration for an idea, then I try to express it in the way that I feel it inside me. It is all about sensations and feelings.

SD: Do you also plan and set-up things to create a particular kind of picture?

GS: I prefer working with what is already existing and not create an artificial effect. I also don't create particular effects in post-production. All the effects that are there in my image, they come from working with my camera.

Even if we are living in the digital era, I try to think as if I am working with an analogical camera-film. Thus, I don't click a lot of pictures, I prefer clicking pictures as a gift, only a few and well thought-out clicks. And, I prefer limiting the use of technology in my work.

 

This is also a kind of rebellion against digital world and there are some persons who prefer using analogical film.

SD: What is the value of photography in a world where millions of tourists click millions of pictures every day, with their mobile phones?

GS: With the social media, the significance of images has been lost. Our ideas of beauty and ugliness have been turned upside down. Thus, even for this, one needs to go back to the older ways doing things, to think and reflect more and to have less anxiety about missing something by clicking a large number of pics. Today we are just bombarded with images.

I feel that it is better to click as few pictures as possible, which means you have thought about each one of them. If you are clicking thousands of images, then it is easy to find one good picture among them. I think that it is more important to click a few, with some good ones, because that requires self-reflection, reasoning and becoming more aware of our surroundings. If you are in contact with the reality around you, you use your capacity for observation.

SD: In terms of AI and your work as a professional photographer, what do you think?

GS: I see it as a potential problem, especially for the images used for advertising. Instead of taking models, professionals, you can create a set and people out of nothing and thus, for the advertising-sector I think that it is going to be a problem.

At the same time, the vast diffusion of digital images has created a greater sensibility among the people towards photography. Since the canons of beauty and ugliness have been turned upside down, some aspects of photography continue to need professionals. For example for making portraits. Sometimes persons come to me for portraits even if they can very well click their own pictures, because they are looking for a specific impact on the social media, so they want a professional.

SD: Have you also done photography for films or videos?

GS: I have done the still photography and backstage for some documentary films, to document everything that happens during the filming and in the backstage.

SD: Thanks Giorgio for taking the time to talk to me.

In The End

Giorgio Schirato's photo-exhibition titled "The Lessons of Water - 450 Years From Titian Till Today"  (Le Lezioni dell'Acqua - 450 Anni Da Tiziano Ad Oggi) is on at Palazzo Toaldi Capra in Schio till 13th September 2026 and can be visited on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, entry is free.

 

I loved his images of Venice, like this image above, where time seems to be standing still and it looks like a dreamscape. I also love his cityscapes where he captures fleeting moments that seem to open the world like a hyper-reality, letting us see things that we would not have seen.

All the images (except Georgio's) in this blogpost are from Giorgio Schirato's website and are protected by copyright. 

***** 

Ghost-Writing & Impact of AI

A couple of years ago, in the second half of 2024, I had interviewed my niece Srishti, who was a ghost-writer. At that time, I was very curious about the ghost-writing work. I spoke to her recently and found out that Artificial Intelligence (AI) had a big impact on her ghost-writing work.

Let me start with my recent experience with AI.

My Recent Experience with AI on Reddit

Earlier this year, I had written a fantasy-fiction novella in Hindi, which is now being serialised on my Hindi blog. I was looking for a cover for my book. I spoke about it to my son and explained to him about the main characters  of the book. With the help of AI, my son prepared a couple of book covers.

However, I felt that those covers looked very clearly "AI-made", so I tried to modify them by using some image programmes and tried painting over them. One of these modified cover was finally used for my book.

Fantasy-fiction is not a common genre in Hindi and I wanted to connect with people who was interested in it. So I joined a fantasy-fiction group on Reddit and wrote a post about my book. The moment the persons in the group found out that my cover was originally AI generated, there was a huge backlash and my post was removed from the group.

This experience gave me an idea about the strong impact AI is having on the work and livelihoods of artists and book-cover designers.

In this article, I am going to present excerpts of Srishti's interview in 2024 and then her recent interview, to understand the impact of AI on her ghost-writing. You can also read her complete interview on my website Kalpana. 

Excerpts from Srishti's 2024 Interview About Ghost-Writing

Being a ghostwriter is an unusual profession. Most of my relatives had not even heard of it. I, myself, had no clue about anything called ghostwriting. Interestingly, I recently found out that one of my uncles (he is no more) used to ghostwrite a weekly newspaper column about a policeman’s encounters and investigations in 1960s' Allahabad. He did it for fun and never got credited or paid for it. The series was later compiled into a book.

I am, too, not credited for my time, worth, talent, energy, research, or honesty. I never Google the books I write because it’s like being in a toxic relationship with your ex. But I do love it when I have repeat clients. The fact that people want to work with me again makes me happy.

I don’t really see my work as unconventional because ghostwriting is more common than most people know. Most autobiographies are ghostwritten.

I keep getting orders so I am actively ghostwriting as of now. However, I have started working on my two fiction books and I intend to publish them in the next ten years (the thought gives me jitters).

In 2022, I came across an advertisement by the platform that I currently work with. It’s a Canadian company and they work with and for people from everywhere. They were hiring ghostwriters through a series of tests. I took the tests for fun and got selected.

The pay was better than what writers are paid in India. I have ghostwritten 24 books. Initially, I was a little sceptical about writing books on real estate, finance, religion, and technology because those were not my areas of expertise, and I adhered to subjects on women, interrelationships, parenting, health, diet, lifestyle, humour, self-help, politics, economy, and diseases and disorders. Now, I take up all the orders that come my way. I am proud of the fact that I can dissociate personal preferences and beliefs from my profession.

I do interact with my clients before I sign the contract. I have the liberty to work at my pace and schedule my orders. When I began in 2022, I used to take up an insane amount of work every month (beginner’s enthusiasm) and the burnout was real in 2023. I have taken things more slowly in 2024.

I love that I get to work with people from different parts of the world. I have worked with competent editors who taught me about book writing and formatting. I have had my share of tough clients as well, very demanding and rude, but the overall experience has been good and I get to read a lot. For example, I had to refer to the Torah for a few segments of a book I wrote this year and that was a great learning experience.

You can read her full interview on Kalpana. 

Impact of AI on Ghost-Writing

Srishti said: In 2024, while I was ghostwriting at Dibbly, we had an opportunity to train their AI tool called KIP.

It was a great learning experience, although back then, we had absolutely no idea that we were axing our own source of income. Kind of makes me laugh right now. Because AI orders got so cheap gradually, the writing packages declined in number.

We had a true dry spell at the company after that because other AI companies were already giving nascent manuscripts/stories a full outline/writing/publishing structure for free and people didn't need ghostwriters or even paid AI writing packages any more.

But I did get some opportunities to work on AI orders too. That was a good learning experience.

I am now working for a company where I will be editing/reviewing academic papers and research articles in the humanities stream. This company helps research papers get published. Most of our clients are from Japan. China, and South Korea. They are very professional and their papers are very good.

I am only learning right now but I think I will also be working on AI manuscripts since people are using it in research too.

I was inherently very anti-AI. This April, I went to Bangalore for a short trip and met a few German civil engineering students there and with one of them kept in touch later. He really changed my perception on AI. I realized millennials like me are more apprehensive about it, of course we think about the larger picture and its effects on the environment and everything else.

But Gen-Zs just don't care. They are unafraid of the change. While we are scared of being dependent on AI or even addicted to it, he told me how Claude is his work assistant and buddy. That really fascinated me. How we use AI is really going to be a game-changer.

I think AI invasion into our lives is inevitable, the world leaders are pushing it with data centres and the biggest tech-tycoons are adamant on making this world AI-driven. But people like me need to make our way through life by using AI, and also correcting AI because it will need constant direction, command, and correction. Until it becomes smarter than me, I got to keep upskilling to not get replaced, I guess.

Conclusions

Srishti's views about AI can make us understand some of the challenges people are expected to face in their personal and professional lives over the coming years and decades. Some of those changes will enhance our quality of life, while the others would make it more difficult, and then, hopefully a new equilibrium would emerge out of chaos.

*****

The Reiki Journey

Reiki is one of the alternative therapies that have arisen out of Indic spiritual ideas. Indic ideas about Brahman, the life energy that pervades every particle of the universe and the different practices linked to focusing on that energy inside ourselves is the basis of different practices varying from Yoga and meditation to Acupuncture and Reiki.

Often people call all these as "unscientific" or "without evidence". However, I think that all these can be seen as another manifestation of what is called "placebo effect", which is a core part of scientific investigation. Whenever we scientifically compare the impact of any therapy through randomised controlled trials, we need to keep account of the Placebo effect, that is the number of persons who will heal themselves with or without the therapy. This means that there are a number of persons who heal themselves, or that our bodies have mechanisms and capacity for self-healing.

Origins of Reiki

Reiki originated in the 1920s by Mikao Usui in Japan. The word Reiki is made up of "Rei" (spiritual), and Ki (life energy).

The Chinese ideas about the blocks and lack of equilibrium in the body-channels of life energy (Chi) is, in my opinion, another approach to a similar idea.

In Reiki the healers use a light touch or keeping the hands near the body to influence the "Ki" in individual's body for unblocking energy channels and thus create equilibrium.

In my opinion, for persons dealing with mental or psychological difficulties, chronic conditions, and life-threatening conditions such as cancer, therapies like Reiki can be a valuable support to more conventional medical treatments. Reiki and other alternative therapies can also be good as a part of people's self-wellness approaches. 

Sadguru on Reiki

Sadguru is a well-known spiritual Guru in India. Recently, I heard him speak on Reiki during a podcast, where he warned about the dangers of Reiki because he said that "life-energy is a delicate and complicated thing and trying to influence the life-energies of people can be dangerous".

I was a little surprised at his ideas since I feel that human beings across cultures and civilisations have been practising different techniques for influencing the life-energy for thousands of years. If we accept his ideas then perhaps we may not even do meditation on our own? 

I was talking about his views to my niece Meghna, who has been engaged in practising and teaching Reiki for many years now.

She said to me, "There is often a lack of understanding about Reiki. Sadguru speaking about it is not new, it came out many years ago when I was in Singapore. I have written a book chapter about my personal life journey and what drew me to Reiki."

Meghna's Journey With Reiki

I asked Meghna:  Is there something about Reiki you'd like others to know that is not commonly known.

She said: I believe Reiki is one of the most wonderful complementary therapies and simple to learn personal wellbeing tools.

What a lot of folks do not know is that Reiki has been recognised as a valid complementary therapy and widely integrated into patient care plans to promote relaxation, alleviate stress, and reduce pain. Over 1,000 hospital-based Reiki programs exist in the United States alone, and the therapy is formally recognized by major global healthcare frameworks, including the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom. I myself was part of a voluntary program with the Red Cross Society for the disabled in Singapore where we used to weekly offer Reiki to their patients.

* 

Some months ago, Meghna has contributed a chapter in a book about Reiki, titled "Reiki Lights - Collected Stories of Transformation". Her chapter is titled "From Doing Reiki to Being Reiki", which explains how she looks at the Reiki practice - a process of her own inner transformation that she uses to help others as a healer and as a Reiki teacher.

About her initial experiences with Reiki she writes: "I realised what a profound self-healing tool Reiki could be, if guided by the right teacher. I approached these practices with the same level of excitement as a child in a candy store. I built a regular self-practice with full body healing techniques as well as distance healing for the inner child when I felt I was working through more deep-seated patterns. I became more disciplined about carving out time at the end of my day ..."

About its impact in the initial phase of her journey she says: "There was an expanding awareness growing within, almost like a quiet voice speaking to me, which inspired the more true to myself choices I started making." 

After facing many challenges in her life-journey, she writes about her present life in Kerala (India): "The Reiki Principles have been a steady compass throughout my journey; guiding my way of being, inspiring me to show up present, authentic, vulnerable and deeply grateful. Practising radical acceptance and surrender is not something I have mastered; it is something I return to, every single day. It has been a journey of constant rediscovery, realignment and remembering. Every day I am learning to be still, and to trust what my heart already knows." 

You can read more about Meghna's Reiki journey and learn more about her Reiki work from her website.

In The End

Reiki, mediation, yoga, mindfulness and similar spiritual practices are important practices to keep us grounded and in contact with our inner core and to what is really important in our lives.

All of us have our ups and downs, moments when everything is going well and moments when challenges come knocking on our doors. I believe that spiritual practices make it easier to deal with those challenges.

***** 

 

The Wandering Gods

When and how did the ancient humans decide to create the sacred spots where their Gods or prophets will live? With time, they decided to create elaborate homes for their Gods but sometimes, the Gods were left out in the open or travelled around with wandering holy-men and sometimes with the holy-women or were carried out of their homes periodically, in processions. I call these the wandering Gods.

This post focuses on some of the my experiences about the wandering Gods.

Most of my experiences of such events are linked with my travels in different parts of the world, especially in India. (Click on the images for bigger pictures)

Sacred Spots for Ancient Humans 

I think that ancient humans chose at least two different kinds of sacred spots.

(1) Some of those sacred spots were along the ancient pathways, for the travellers. At these spots, usually they did not build elaborate structures. Often, these were simple stone-towers or coloured clothes tied on or around trees. Sometimes these sites were close to the water sources.

For example, in Mongolia I saw the stone put together, often accompanied by flower trees and colourful scarfs, along the important pathways, criss-crossing its land. I was told that each stone in that place is sacred and you are prohibited from taking away even a single stone from those places.

 

I think that many persons have started believing in building such stone-towers. I saw them in a forest in Arizona (USA), as well as, in the river bed behind our home in Schio (Italy).

Similar to those stone-towers in Mongolia, are the tree shrines, that are so common in India. There was a small Hindu temple in central part of Mozambique, where I had seen a beautiful tree shrine around a huge Peeple tree. The image below has a tree shrine from a rural area in Madhya Pradesh (India).

 

(2) Other, more important sacred spots were places where the hunter-gatherers came together for big clan meetings. Often these were near rivers and streams or on the top of mountains. Prehistoric caves where rock art has been discovered were also chosen as sacred sites. These became sites of seasonal or periodic fairs and pilgrimages.

For example, the vast area around the confluence (Sangam) of Ganges and Yamuna rivers in Prayagraj (India) is visited by millions of persons during the 6 or 12 yearly Kumbh fair.

 

Specific Energy Fields For the Sacred Spots 

There is another aspect of the selection of sacred spots, about which my knowledge is limited - areas with auspicious or positive energy fields.

I have read that many ancient temples were built in areas that had a special kind of energy and thus, many of the more recent churches were built in their places when the old pagan religions were abandoned.

For example, I had read that the beautiful Santo Stefano church in Bologna (Italy) was built at the site of an older temple dedicated to Venus. People talk of the positive energy of this church. 

Some years ago, while on a walk in the forest behind the Bashistha temple in Guwahati (India) in India, I had met a Sadhu (ascetic) who had told me about the special energy that comes out of the ground and the rocks. I had put my hand on that spot but I was unable to feel any energy, which was there according to that Sadhu.

Perhaps, ancient humans, shamans and mystics are more open psychologically to such experiences of energy-fields and thus, chose specific sites for their prayer places. Or as the Sadhu had told me, "You have to learn to quieten your mind, then you can feel it." 

Gods Come Out of Their Abodes for a Procession

There is another sacred tradition that continues from old times - that of the Gods in procession. Sometimes, the icons and symbols of Gods are brought out of their temples or churches and are carried out in processions.

For example, when I lived in Bologna (Italy), I remember the annual procession in the evening, when the Madonna statue was taken out of the Bertalia church and carried out in a procession along the streets and parks.

 

Another example is from Delhi (India), where floats carrying statues and persons dressed as Gods travelled on floats for the annual Ram Lila in which the story of Ramayana was enacted.

 

I remember a more complex example of such procession in Cidade Alta in Salvador de Bahia (Brazil), where the descendents of the slaves brought from Africa, who were forced to convert to Christianity, had merged their African Orisha Gods with the Christian saints.

 

In Himachal Pradesh (India), in the mountains around the town of Kullu, each mountain village has its own deity in a temple, many of whom come from older folk-traditions. Around the festival of Dusshera every year, all of them are carried out in procession to Kullu, where they live in temporary temples along with all the other deities.

In Karnataka (India), they have a tradition of men carrying in annual processions the Gods in their temples on their heads without holding it with their hands, while persons dressed as warriors carrying swords accompany them for protection.

 

Finally, in another example from Kerala (India) I remember the tradition of Theyyam in which there were men dressed as Gods, who invoked the Gods to descend in their bodies, to give benedictions and to answer questions.

Herders Moving Their Homes And Temples   

As hunter-gatherers were replaced by people owning cattle, they usually shifted their homes with the seasons, looking for grasslands and fodder for their cattle. They also took their Gods when they moved homes. 

I saw a group of herders in Mongolia, who had travelled from their villages to an area next to a lake, where they were setting up their home-tents and their temple.

 

Wandering Triptychs & Tripitaks

Travelling story-tellers, ascetics and mystics, was another group of people who carried sacred icons with them to the different communities. For the wandering Gods, sometimes, their sacred images were depicted on scrolls or portable temples, which could be folded and carried easily.  

The term Triptych (literally 3 tablets) comes from Latin and Greek, it is used frequently in conjunction with Christian sacred images. A triptych has 3 panels, one bigger central panel with two side panels which are attached to the central part like a door. Thus, the panels can be closed and it becomes a box, which can be carried around easily, similar to the idea of the wandering Gods.

The foldable Catholic Triptych in the image below is from Victoria & Albert Museum in London (UK). 

 

There is a similar term, Tripitak (3 boxes), used in Buddhism. It comes from Pali language, one of the languages of ancient India, which was used by Buddha for his preaching. It denotes an ancient Buddhist book containing all the  discourses of Gautam Buddha, which is divided into three main parts - Vinaypitak, Sutpitak and Dhammapitak, and was perhaps carried around by monks.

Conclusions

The idea of writing this post came from my musings on the similarities between the words "Triptych" and "Tripitak". I hope that you have enjoyed reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it.

Growing up in India, it is easy to get used to the idea of "God is every where" because in our daily life we can see people praying to cows, trees, mountains, rivers, all the time. At the same time, we can see the wandering Gods - men leading cows bedecked with flowers around the cities, children & adults dressed up as Gods asking for alms, people carrying sacred images or symbols in bowls and buckets to ask for alms on specific days of the weeks at red lights.

I want to mention 2 books that I had read in the 1980s, that have influenced my ideas about religions and gods - Jean M. Auel's series of books (Children of Earth series), starting with the "Clan of the Cave Bear" about the life in a Neanderthal community. Another book that helped me to understand how religions start and grow is "The Source" by James A. Michener in which he looks at different layers of history around a water-spring somewhere in Israel.

Not just about the origins of religions and ideas of Gods, these are great books and if you have not read them, try them.

*****

Schio Film Festival 2026 - Exhibitions & Performances

The second edition of international film festival of Schio - ISFF, was held from 30 July to 2 August 2026. Among the side-events of the festival were three interesting exhibitions and a couple of performances. This post is about them.

These included an incredible performance by the theatre group Teatro 80 (in the image below - click on the pictures for a bigger view)

If you wish, you can also read my article on the ISFF 2026 side-events about "Art and Cinema".

Story-Telling of Leonardo Ottoni Through His Art

Leonardo Ottoni was born with autism and he is an artist. He lives in Castel San Pietro Terme, not far from Bologna. 

His art was first noted by his teachers in the high school, when they saw him doodling on his notebook and felt that he was a very good artist. Thus, they suggested that he should try making art. (In the image on the left, Leo is showing the walk of a mechanical toy)

This happened around ten years ago. Since then he has been experimenting with oil paintings and his first art exhibition was held in 2017. Over the years, his art work has been shown in many art exhibitions and is used on notebooks, diaries and bookmarks, sold through local stores and cooperatives.

The first thing which Leonardo said to me when I tried to interview him was, "Keep your distance, don't come too close to me." He was not very expressive and articulate when I asked him questions about his artistic journey and his father, Emanuele helped him in this. 

However, sometime later, when Leonardo started explaining his artworks to the public, with the support of his mother Katia, he was transformed as a performer - making sounds, moving around, gesturing and dancing, explaining the ideas that inspire his artworks. (The artworks below were inspired by the music of The Blues Brothers, and talking about them Leo sang the words of a song).

 

He mostly draws animals and birds and uses bright colours. The kitchen in their home is his preferred environment for making art. Many of his works are inspired by music, as he sits in the kitchen listening to the music and ideas about the forms he wants to make come to him. In his presentation of his artworks, he often hums that music and start moving around while explaining the feelings and ideas that music had provoked in him.

Another way his inspiration comes is through visits, such as his visit to the Biosfera in Rome, and through stories and books. Katia explained that initially he full the full stories through his art, but more recently, he can even start from the middle or the end of the story, without needing to express it from the beginning to the end.

I loved Leonardo's artworks and my favourite is the one shown below (made after the visit to the Biosfera in Rome), in which the two cats or lions in the bottom-right are supposed to be Robinhood and Marian. (click on the picture for a bigger view)

The Costumes of Stefano Nicolao

Atlier Nicolao of costume designer Stefano Nicolao is based in Venice. It is famous for his costumes, especially for historical films. Maestro Stefano has done costume-design for many famous films including Marco Polo, Pirates of the Caraibi, Elizabeth, Casanova and Farinelli.

Stefano was unable to be there for the inauguration of his exhibition at ISFF and his friend and collaborator, well-known photographer Attilio Bruni was there to present the costumes from some of his films and serials.

While presenting the costumes, Attilio recounted many stories about the challenges a costume designer faces for films. For example, while shooting for the serial Marco Polo in high mountains, they needed furs and when they asked where to get them, they were brought hundreds of live rams and sheep, which had to be butchered to get their fur.

Attilio also said that Stefano is very particular about perfection and realism in his costumes. For example, if the scene has a hundred Buddhist monks, he wants that each of them is dressed authentically, even if some of them will be at the back and not fully visible.

Apart from costumes for films and serials, Atelier Nicolao in Venice can rent costumes, take your picture in a historical costume, organise guided tours or even organise costume-events for you, naturally all for a fee.

Stefano Nicolao is originally from Venice and started his carrier as an actor, but then found that he preferred backstage and especially costumes. His carrier took off after he assisted Enrico Sabbatini for the costumes of the TV serial Marco Polo in 1980, where he designed costumes and sets for the unit shooting in Tibet. In that same year he founded Atelier Nicolao, which is considered as one of the most important global sources for historical costumes. 

The Dresses of Banco Lotto N. 10 - Costumes by Prisoner Women

This exhibition presented the costumes made by the women inmates of Giudecca prison in Venice. Banco Lotto N. 10 is a social cooperative. 

This project was started in 2001 by the Cooperative Il Cerchio to teach an earning skill to the women inmates of the prison, and was funded by European Union and others. That project had concluded with a fashion show by the women prisoners and jail officers.

The success of the initial project, prompted the continuation of this activity in the prison and a boutique was opened in 2003 where people could buy their costumes.

Some famous local dressmakers and weavers of Venice such as Rubelli and Tessitura Bevilacqua collaborate with them to ensure high quality work. They also make the costumes for the famous Fenice theatre of Venice. They also get a space at the art biennale of Venice to showcase their products.

Teatro 80 Presents the Poems of Alda Merini

Alda Merini (1931-2009) was an Italian poet and writer. She is an iconic figure in the Italian literary scene. Among her life's experiences was a bipolar disturbance which led her to a psychiatric hospital for a period and this experience inspired some of her most famous works about madness.

Teatro 80 is a local theatre group in Schio, which was formed in 1980 and continues to be active. For ISFF, persons from Teatro 80, made an open-air theatre and dance performance on the streets in the city centre of Schio, based on some of the poems of Alda Merini.

Dressed in black and having a white muslin cloth as a prop, the actors-dancers created emotionally charged choreographies in the different parts of the city, supported by 3 musicians. On the guitar was my friend Roberto Rizzato. Alda Merini's daughter, Emanuela Carniti was also present during this performance.

It was an absolutely amazing performance, expressing the anguish and strong emotions of the poet. It was even more incredible because it was an afternoon of one of the hottest day of this season in Schio.

Some years ago, I had participated in a workshop on Theatre and Photography organised by Teatro 80. If you wish, you can read that as well. 

In The End

With ISFF - International Scledum Film Festival, Schio has one more important cultural activity in its already rich calendar of events. Considering that it is just a tiny little town, it is absolutely amazing that we can enjoy so many cultural events and a especial joy for me, as I can meet so many interesting persons for my blog.

If I have to choose one favourite side-event of ISFF, it would be the performance by Teatro 80 on the poems of Alda Merini. I liked it also because it was not an aseptic performance. As you can see from the image below, with children running between the performers, it was a performance in which the city was an active participant.

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Read the first part of the article on ISFF 2026

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Schio Film Festival 2026 - Art & Cinema

The second edition of Schio's film festival called ISFF - International Scledum Film Festival 2026 concluded yesterday (2 August). ISFF has a competitive section for the short and experimental films and there is a non-competitive section for other films. All the events of ISFF, including film projections are free and open to public.

In this post I want to touch on some of the side-events of ISFF which looked at the role of art in cinema.

"The Colours Behind the Windows" Art Exhibition

This exhibition was created by students of the Art Institute Arturo Martini of Schio. Inspired by the film "Rear Window" (1954) by Alfred Hitchcock, the students recreated some of this film's scenes in oil paintings and terracotta sculptures.

Some of the scenes were recreated in both, paintings and terracotta sculptures, so it was possible to compare the two and understand how the medium affected the art expression. For example, look at the images below and compare how that same scene is rendered in oil painting and in terracotta. (Click on the images for a bigger view)

 

I felt that the painting was better able to express emotions, and it could be a little abstract, giving the spectator the freedom to give it a meaning. It could also represent the physical reality better, for example, the transparency of the window panes. The terracotta was more defined, more physical and made it easier to identify objects, but IMO it was not able to express the emotions of the film.

However, I also feel that the level of terracotta work by the students was a little gross and perhaps, a better terracotta work, as done by some master artisans, could have been more impactful.

The terracotta sculptures were coordinated by prof. Alice Leoni and the paintings by prof. Francesca dal Santo. The art works were made by the students of different classes of the institute. 

History of Italian Cinema Through Posters of Some Iconic Films

This was an exhibition of posters. I was lucky that the organiser of this exhibition, Elena Tenga, was accompanying me and thus I was able to briefly talk to her.

Elena said that she is a film critic and a film historian. She has been collecting posters of Italian films and in her collection she has posters for the period 1930-1980. Some of the posters, which have handwritten dedications of the actors and directors. For example, one of the posters in the exhibition had a handwritten dedication by well-known Italian actor, Ornella Muti.

About the evolution of the film posters, Elena said that initially these posters were hand-painted and there were some well-known poster making artists such as Anselmo Ballester. Then came the posters using the photographs.

Many film directors took great interest in the design of their films and their posters. Some like Federico Fellini, used to design the full story-board for their films and thus decided the visual look of his films.

Dressing the Film-Characters - A Masterclass by Catherine Buyse

Catherine Buyse is a film costume designer based in Venice. With a Belgian father and an Italian mother, Catherine grew up in Belgium. She studied dress design and initially started in the area of fashion designing.

Her first experiences in film-costume designing were with friends who asked for her help for the costumes of videos and short films. She liked this experience so much, also because it was not related to commercialisation of her costumes and gave greater artistic satisfaction, that she decided to pursue it.

She started as someone in the costume designing team and made her way to costume supervision and then finally to becoming the costume designer. She works with the different films which are shot in Venice.

Over the years, she explained, that the work has changed. In the nineties, when there was no internet, when a team arrived from outside to shoot a film in Venice, they did not know local artisans and shops for buying clothes, stitching and preparing costumes for the local actors involved in the shoots, so she had all the contacts. Today with internet, it is easier to come from outside and shoot.

She presented a few films from her portfolio and showed how designing costumes for different kinds of films is different. For example, for a historical film, for different ages of the characters, for different scenes like bombings or water immersion, can create specific artistic challenges for costume design, which can be very different from those faced in a fantasy film. From issues like continuity to wear and tear of costumes during shootings, she gave different examples from her image-archives.

The image below is from her website showing the historical photographs of women from the second world war period, that she chose to design costumes for the heroine of the Italian TV serial "La Storia". This serial was directed by Francesca Archibugi, based on a book by Elsa Morante. It was based during the second world war. She explained that everything, including the underwear, worn by the actors was based on historical research, using materials from that era.

She also explained how the scenes of the world war in Africa and the soldiers dying of intense cold in Siberia, were all shot in Italy on days when the outside temperatures were hovering around 40 degrees. This also helped to understand how actors may need to wear heavy costumes even when it is hot.

For the uniforms of the different armies, it was important to ensure that there were no mistakes and thus, they had an additional consultant for this. About recreating intense cold during an intensely hot summer, she explained the use of artificial snow, salt and paraffin wax over the lips, clothes and shoes. Persons having gangrenes in their toes and noses were recreated through make-up.   

There were some technical glitches during her presentation, so it was delayed and since I had another engagement, I had to miss part of her presentation, but I had found it very fascinating, even if a bit unstructured. It gave a vivid overview of costume designing as a challenging but fulfilling team-work.

Dive e Motori - Parade of Vintage Cars

The rally of beautifully maintained vintage cars was organised by the Historic Club of Schio. Most of the cars for this show and rally came from Schio and surrounding areas.

The vintage car rally, required the cars to go to the Rossi park in Sant'Orso and come back to Schio. While some of the vintage cars were also put on show in Schio's city centre.

Some of the vintage cars are absolutely wonderful, they make me think of Casablanca and James Bond.

Celebrities in Schio

There are a number of celebrities going around the town because of the festival. I noticed the French actor Mark Grosy along with the directors Camille Tello and Leslie Crocquefere and the intimacy coordinator, Rachel Zekri in an exhibition. They are here for their short film "Tria Fata".

Mark Grosy became better known in Italy recently for his role in the serial Sandokan (2025, a remake of the old serial).

In another exhibition, I saw the young Italian actor Sofia d'Elia and didn't recognise her till I later saw her poster! 

In the End

Over the past few years, I prefer books to films. Thus, when Catherine Buys was talking about the costumes of the serial "La Storia", I liked what she told about it and thought that I will read Elsa Morante's book on which this serial is based. So I am not the best person to talk about film festivals.

However, as you can see from my post, even if I don't watch films, there is so much to talk about the art of film-making.

It also makes me feel proud about our tiny little town in the foothills of Alps, that it is so much culturally alive with so many events which give me opportunities to talk to so many different kinds of persons!

Let me close this post with a beautiful blue vintage car. 

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Read the second part of my post on ISFF focusing on exhibitions and performances

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CBR & New Technologies

I was engaged in Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR) programmes from early 1980s till a few years ago. Over that period, I saw CBR change from a health programme to a multi-sectoral approach dealing also with education, occupation and empowerment issues of persons with disabilities.

In this write-up I want to briefly look at the historical evolution of CBR approach, and some of the key persons involved in it - I was fortunate to meet and work with many of them. I will conclude with a brief reflection about the future of CBR and the possible roles of new technologies in it. (You can click on the images below for a bigger view)

The image below has a volunteer from red cross visiting a woman with disability who had received a loan from CBR programme to buy a sewing machine, in Da Nang province, Vietnam (2010) - image by Sunil Deepak. 

Origins of Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR)

Through the Alma Ata conference on primary health care in 1978, Dr Halfdan Mahler, DG of WHO in Geneva promoted the community based approaches including CBR.

In the image below (from right) - Dr Halfdan Mahler, author (Dr Sunil Deepak), with Armando & Hani Serag from PHM, in Geneva, 2007 

While Alma Ata was being planned, Einar Helander was appointed at the rehabilitation department of WHO in Geneva and asked to look at CBR. Over the next few years,  Padmini Mendis (Sri Lanka) Anne Goerdt (USA) joined him. The three of them prepared what came to be known as the WHO's CBR manual, which  came out in 1989.

The basic premise of the WHO CBR manual was that in rural areas and small towns, there were few rehabilitation professionals. Often, only families and communities looked after the children and adults with disabilities. The manual presented simple rehabilitation techniques with illustrations, which could be taught to the families, so that they themselves could promote their greater autonomy and well-being.

However, the question was who would teach the simple information explained in the manual to disabled persons and their families? During 1980s and 90s, two main approaches were developed to answer this question - (1) Existing community workers, especially health workers; (2) Community volunteers, especially persons with disabilities themselves and/or their family members. Those persons were supposed to receive training for 21 days.

Another important CBR manual was developed in 1987 by David Werner, titled Disabled Village Children. However, instead of working in the communities, he proposed setting up of resource centres, where children with disabilities accompanied by a family member came to learn and practice self-care, which they could later continue at home.

From Health focused CBR to Multi-Sectoral CBR

Around 1990-91, Dr Enrico Pupulin took the place of Einar Helander at the Rehabilitation department of WHO. He started consultations with other UN agencies including UNESCO for education, ILO for work & UNICEF for children, for their roles in CBR. As a result of these consultations, The first Joint Position Paper on CBR was drafted in 1994, which was updated in 2004.

The pioneers of CBR - from left - Enrico Pupulin, Einar Helander & Alana Officer, at the CBR congress in Agra, India in 2012 - image by Sunil Deepak  

 

In 2006, Disability & Rehabilitation (DAR) team of WHO under Alana Officer, together with UNESCO, ILO and IDDC, initiated a consultative process for the preparation of CBR Guidelines, under the guidance of Chapal Khasnabis. The CBR Guidelines came out in 2010. These guidelines proposed the CBR Matrix, a visual map to understand different components of CBR and their activities.

The term, Community-Based Inclusive Development (CBID) was proposed as an alternative to CBR to express its multi-sectoral nature.

Some of the Key Persons in CBR

During the 1980s, 1990s and the first decade of 2000, important CBR programmes covering large areas or entire countries or regions were started. Some countries adopted CBR as the national rehabilitation strategy. The image below from 1995, shows some of the key persons known for their work in CBR.  

The image above is from a CBR workshop in Rome, organised by AIFO-Italy in 1995, with some of the key figures who played a big role in developing CBR approach including Brian O' Toole & Geraldine Mason Hall (Guyana), Dr Ferial and Dr Rati (Indonesia), Bob Ransom (ILO), Maya Thomas (India) and Dr Tran Trong Hai (Vietnam) - Image by Sunil Deepak 

CBR & New Technologies in Last 15 years

Over the past decade, the diffusion of internet and smart phones across the world has changed the situation in terms of accessing information. For example, the video-platform YouTube is full of videos made by persons with disabilities of all kinds, by their families and by professionals, from around the world. These videos can be automatically translated and have subtitles in different languages.

Another example of technological change is the role played by social media and apps in connecting people and families and services. 

Another change has been the predominant role of Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) in the countries after the adoption of the International convention CRPD at the UN in 2006. 

Compared to a health worker or a school teacher or a community volunteer, who had to be trained over 2-3 weeks in basic rehabilitation approaches to different kinds of disabilities, today the access to that kind of basic information is even more effective because individuals can connect with other families facing similar challenges.

Some years ago, together with International Disability and Development Consortium (IDDC), there was an effort to create a mobile app to provide the basic rehab information to CBR workers, through an app called RehApp. I tried looking for it on the Google store (in July 2026), found 2 apps of that name - one had been downloaded less than 100 times and the other around 1000 times.       

WHO also has more than 20 self-learning modules on the TAP platform, which can be used for training health workers and others about different disabilities and assistive technology needs.

A Question to the CBR/CBID Programmes

My impression is that due to all these changes over the past decade, the CBR programmes as they existed up to 10-15 years ago, are no longer there. To understand the present situation, I have 3 questions for individuals and organisations that work with persons with disabilities:

(1) Is a CBR programme still useful? For doing what?

(2) Compared to 10-15 years ago, how have CBR related work changed?  

(2) What roles are new technologies (including social media, whatsapp, messenger, youtube, etc.) playing in your work today?

You can answer by leaving a comment below (you can answer in English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Hindi, Bengali or any other language that you prefer). Looking forward to hearing from you!

If you wish, you can also send me an email at sunil.deepak@gmail.com  

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