The idea
Baci Sospesi (Italian for Suspended Kisses) is an international participatory and multimedia art project created by Barbara Sbrocca in 2020. The core idea of the project is to make it a bit easier for people to realize/remember how we humans are all connected by the same need for connection. And the more we get rid of fear and isolation, the more we recognize the humanity in one another. It’s time for those who care about humanity, to be visible, to be recognisable, to be united.
We need this now more than ever.
Purpose and vision
In a time of competition for anything: attention, work, resources and even the right to belong, affection and sensitivity are often treated as weaknesses. A “stranger” can quickly become an enemy, a rival, a competitor.
Baci Sospesi is the peaceful reaction to the culture of constant fear. We seek to bring the recognition of “the other” into relationships, our community, our everyday actions. This project creates a special space, time and form for empathy, vulnerability and hope.
“Let us defend our shared humanity. While there is still time.”
Richard Gere, video appeal with ActionAid, October 2026
Absolutely. Let’s defend, and nurture our common humanity, through words, presence and action!
How it began
Barbara Sbrocca created Baci Sospesi in March 2020, during the first Italian lockdown and a profound separation from her own personal and professional past. At that time, people sang from balconies to resist isolation. “andrà tutto bene!” “It’s going to be ok” many people wrote on their improvised banners.
Yet, at the very same time, many people were being left to die in the Mediterranean Sea, on the Italian shores, as they tried to reach Europe and have a chance in life.
Barbara called this contradiction “affective schizophrenia”: asking others to recognise one’s own pain while remaining blind to others’.
So she had an idea: what if we listened to people’s love and separation stories. A broken heart or a heart in love, has the same colour as the next one. Right? So she started recording the audio of conversations she had with people whom she asked: tell me about your click moments, in your relationships, love and separations key moments.
She wanted the “naked” stories to reach the listener, before names, professions and nationalities. Anonymous audio portraits became the first body of the project. Then, she needed a tangible public installation where people could go and leave messages to strangers, in times of isolation. So… the red irregular shapes called “baci” that she already sculpted and painted in her artwork, became the vessels/containers of those messages and the symbol of the project. Why red? because we all have red blood. Why near the water? well… keep reading and you’ll find out.
Why in public spaces? Because no one should pay for hope and connection.
What does “sospeso” mean?
The name Baci Sospesi (Suspended Kisses) comes from the Neapolitan tradition of the “caffè sospeso”: when you go to a bar to enjoy an espresso, you pay for your own coffee, and you pay in advance for a second one, leaving the prepaid ticket “suspended”, available for an unknown person. Basically you offer a coffee before knowing who will receive it.
It’s a simple yet important act of kindness.
A “bacio sospeso” carries the same idea: I leave a message, or I donate my story, to someone I don’t know, because I am sure we share the same human vulnerability, hope, needs. I know someone somewhere will smile and feel less alone.
Artist-led and participatory
Barbara Sbrocca created the concept, the visual and sonic language, and the ethical direction of Baci Sospesi. Other people participated giving it life through their voices, messages, knowledge, labour and in some cases, also artistic interpretations, as happened in Leiria (Portugal) and in Berlin (Germany).
The artistic language
The forms Barbara calls baci are red like blood: the material of bodies that pulse, feel and love. Their irregular outlines give each one an individual presence. They approach one another, move apart or touch, while remaining recognisable. Each bacio is unique as humans are. Never round, never perfect, always mutating, due to the relationship with others.
In the installations, some baci are made in a way that can receive paper messages.
Water, we said, is also important. Because all of us humans are born from water… and are made mainly of water. And because oceans should unite us, not be borders. Ever.
So… the sound of the ocean runs through every audio portrait. As every permanent installation is placed near water, in a freely accessible place.
Separation belongs to this language as much as encounter. To relate to another person includes knowing the importance of distance as much as proximity, they are both necessary. Like in breathing.
If you never let go of your air, you cannot breathe again.
Baci Sospesi makes room for love without possessing, for ongoing transformation, for endings that acknowledge what a relationship has meant. And grow from there.
Building shared public space
Free public access is part of the artistic proposition. So much of everyday life asks people to buy something before they can occupy a place. Baci Sospesi offers a reason to stop, listen to a voice and exchange a thought without necessarily entering a commercial transaction. Anyone can become a participant through a choice as simple as writing a Bacio Sospeso for a stranger.
A story recorded in one country can reach a listener elsewhere years later. A message collected at a temporary installation in the UK can travel to Passoscuro and be found there (as it happened). The project creates a relationship between people who may never share a room and yet share a feeling. And feel connected.
The red shapes are becoming the symbol of what’s best in humans: empathy, collaboration, peace.
We need this. We need it more than ever.
Bring Baci Sospesi to new places
The project is ongoing and the goal is to bring it all over the world, with an installation in every city where community spirit is strong, empathy is relevant, and good people have a voice.
So: a public museum can host an exhibition and an interactive full immersion experience.
A municipality or an organization can give a permanent installation or a workshop to the community
A festival can host a Baci Sospesi event.
A school can host a Baci Sospesi Sprouting Lab.
Private organizations can host temporary installations and presentations.
Artists can propose a collaboration, and give their interpretation of Baci Sospesi.
An artisan can offer their expertise to make a Baci Sospesi installation.
A person can become a story donor.
If any of these possibilities speaks to you, write to Barbara Sbrocca and start a conversation. New ideas and collaborations are welcome.
Baci Sospesi is an artistic project created and owned by Barbara Sbrocca. Its name and visual symbols are protected. Every initiative or collaboration, including any use of the Baci Sospesi name or symbols, requires her prior written agreement.