Be my voice - A diary for Gaza

From 5 to 8 February 2026, as part of ART CITY Bologna 2026 and ART CITY White Night on the occasion of Arte Fiera, continues the commitment of Teatri di Vita to keep attention focused on Gaza and Palestine. 

The exhibition Be my voice arises from the daily correspondence between Palestinian journalist Alhassan Selmi, trapped in Gaza while reporting the genocide live, and Italian illustrator Marcella Brancaforte, who from afar tries to give images to his words. The analogue images on paper attempt to portray some moments of the trauma of the occupation in the Gaza Strip. The authors began compiling this daily diary and never stopped, in order to narrate the genocide to the eyes of the world and break the silence.

The exhibition inspired the two three-handed books Hassan e il genocidio and Il popolo meraviglioso by Raffaele Oriani and Alhassan Selmi, with images by Marcella Brancaforte, published by People.

Marcella Brancaforte, an illustrator, collaborates with periodicals and publishing houses. Since 2010 she has been co-curator of Librimmaginari, a festival of drawing and illustrated books. She teaches illustration at high school and in other contexts, and develops projects that expand the image into performative and audiovisual actions.

Alhassan Selmi was born in Gaza. He holds a degree in Media Communication from Al Aqsa University and has been working as a photographer and videomaker since 2009. Since 2023 he has collaborated as a field journalist for various international outlets. For Italian media, he has worked, among others, on the film Erasmus a Gaza (2021) and on the report Among the Rubble of Gaza for Report on La7 (2023). In 2025 he was awarded the Colombe d’Oro per la Pace prize by Archivio Disarmo.