A year ago Valerio Berruti created the charity initiative “The strongest embrace” by committing to donate his own drawing – oil pastels and enamel on 36x21cm cardboard, specially made – to anyone who makes a donation of more than 300 euros to the Foundation New Alba-Bra Onlus Hospital.
The initiative, launched on March 26, 2020, ended after less than a week and thanks to the donations received through the drawings and sales of the special edition book “L’abbraccio più forte” (Gallucci publisher), over 260 were collected thousand euros in support of the health emergency. Donations came from all over Italy and also from abroad, involving countries such as: Spain, Germany, United Kingdom, Switzerland, United States, Japan and Australia. The sum collected was used to purchase devices doctors and in particular a special multi-diagnostic mobile clinic: a vehicle equipped for medical assistance, swabs and vaccinations to be carried out in the Langhe and Roero area.
The book, a special flipbook with a poetic preface by Piero Negri Scaglione, collected all the drawings created for the occasion and allowed anyone who quickly leafed through the pages to imagine animation. The time has now come for the artist from Alba to close the circle of the “embrace” project and search for the authors of the video animation soundtrack which, as the artist explains through the videos posted on his website and social channels, will be numerous .
«I can’t think that a year has passed since the first lockdown – declares Valerio Berruti – I know that it is a widespread feeling, especially in relation to the new closure we are experiencing. I find myself, with great difficulty, breaking down the barriers that Covid-19 imposes and fortunately continuing my work. The next projects that will see me involved will be abroad and I would like to be able to include the video of “The strongest embrace” which at the moment still has no soundtrack. I would like to be able to continue the invitation addressed to people, as I did for the realization of the drawings, turning now to the musicians, a category neglected in a period without concerts and shows. So I launch a “social call for music” imagining a great collective work that can embrace people and the arts in this difficult time. “
The video of “The strongest embrace” is available and downloadable from Valerio Berruti’s website. The proposed soundtrack must be unpublished and of a minimum duration of 120 seconds (ie the time in which the 768 frames that make up the video flow). Each song dedicated to the initiative will be shared on the artist’s Instagram profile.
