The association Aniridia Italiana APS has organised, with the collaboration of the “Omero” (Homerus) National Tactile Museum in Ancona (Marche, Italy), the exhibition: “AniridiaX: superheroes with black eyes and a coloured heart” on 19th and 20th June 2021 to celebrate the International Aniridia Day.
Some of the paintings created by Anna Ielo have been exhibited to animate the story conceived by Veronica Tartaglia and dedicated to the fantastic adventures of six boys and girls with aniridia who use their extraordinary superpowers to fight against the “Villains of Covid-19” and save the world. This illustrated story, whose characters are inspired by the real young people of our association, is about aniridia and the possibility of facing the condition with positivity and courage, despite all the difficulties, and of contrasting all those emotional and sensory enemies, such as sadness, fear, chaos, darkness, silence, that in the last 12 months have tried to take over the earth and human beings.
The story was transposed into a calendar in January 2021 and now, for the Museum Omero, it has been printed in Braille, in large font and with a graphic tactile printer to be “readable” for all the exhibit visitors.
In the name “AniridiaX” the “X” clearly comes from the X-Men, genetically modified comics superheroes, but obviously also refers to the genetic mutation factor that this disease implies. The main messages the story and the illustrations want to propose to the public are to show the creativity and artistic ability of people with disabilities and to underline the new generations’ increasing need not to be satisfied with the reality and to learn how to be part of the change. The “superpowers” of these six heroes (joy, communication, music, creativity, vitality, organisation) urge us to activate our inner resources to change things for us and for the others with a positive vision, like the one proposed by the authors and the main characters of this adventure.
