Balance

Photo taken by contributor Riccardo Bevilacqua, a 39-year-old nuclear physicist currently living between Sweden and Belgium. Riccardo loves to travel, and take photos of local people wherever he goes. He worked for many years in his local community with people affected by physical and mental impairments, and he understands and is sensitive to the challenges that the families have to face, often alone. The apartment where he is living now is actually part of an old psychiatric hospital. The municipality decided to refurbish a wing of the building as a residential area, whereas the rest of the former hospital is now adapted as a museum. Geel, the town in which he lives in Belgium, is known for the practice of deinstitutionalization in psychiatric care, and this dates back since the 13th century! Still now-a-days 500 families in Geel alone, host a psychiatric patient in their house, where they live as members of the family itself.

About this photo: “I have created this photo in collaboration with my wife Niroch — who is a much more talented photographer than I am — and Lisa, a beautiful model and ballerina. When I saw the result, I thought: this image is perfect for the Broken Light project.

The state of equilibrium reached by this ballerina is the most unstable, fragile and unexpected you could think. She is holding her weight over her arms, showing her strength but at the same time her inability to move forward. The energy is channelled in a direction which offers no solutions. The horizon is open, but empty. This image makes me think about depression. About the inability to move, despite any effort of our mind. And still the result is harmonious and beautiful. A “normal” image of someone standing on her feet, would have not told us anything. Often, unexpected equilibria are the most beautiful — if we know how to look at them.”

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