Hulk's Toys


  • Photographer
    Tommaso Barsali
  • Prize
    Honorable Mention
  • Company/Studios
    none
  • Date of Photograph
    2006-2011
  • Technical Info
    35 mm b&w film and digital

"Hulk's Toys" is the story of a man and his toys. Franco Bellucci lived for four decades, since his childhood, detained in an asylum in Volterra, Italy, due to his destructivity towards objects. For fifteen years, he was constantly tied to his bed, as a mean of containing his great force. In 1998, as asylums had become illegal in Italy, thanks to a law inspired by psychiatrist Basaglia, he was accepted in an open facility in Livorno, Italy, for people that like him, could not take care of themselves. There, his condition was respected, and his creativity encouraged. There instead of destroying he started re-creating, making strange objects by tying together all kind of materials in powerful works of art, that he considers his toys.

Story

"Hulk's Toys" is the story of a man and his toys.

Franco Bellucci lived for four decades, since his childhood, detained in an asylum in Volterra, Italy, due to his destructivity towards objects.

For fifteen years, he was constantly tied to his bed, as a mean of containing his great force.

In 1998, as asylums had become illegal in Italy, thanks to a law inspired by psychiatrist Basaglia, he was accepted in an open facility in Livorno, Italy, for people that like him, could not take care of themselves.

There, his condition was respected, and his creativity encouraged. There, instead of destroying, he started re-creating, making strange objects by tying together all kind of materials in powerful works of art, that he considers his toys. He sleeps with them, always has one in his hands, and his thoughts constantly go to them.
Without a revolutionary law like the one inspired by Basaglia, Franco’s story would not have been possible, as he would still be tied to his bed in an asylum, dreaming of his toys.
One can survive his own and others' madness, only when finally receiving a little humanity, a chance to express freely, and to be considered someone altogether different from the mental sufferings endured, a person before a patient, a human being before his disease.
I think that Franco does what he can to change the world as he sees it, he has done it all his life, destroying or creating, always courageously.

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