Take part
You can join Baci Sospesi with your words, your story, your media support, your financial contribution, your practical help in multiplying the love ripple.
When loneliness and hatred make the world feel smaller, reaching out is an act of resistance. Let us nurture our common humanity.
Start with what speaks to you most. And keep participating in all the ways possible.
Send a Bacio Sospeso
Offer a message to someone you may never meet. The Baci Sospesi Cloud brings the exchange of paper notes online: words of affection, courage, hope or a quote that matters to you. Read what other people have left and send your own words to the world. Your message will appear in the Cloud only after approval.
You can share your first name if you want. Your email will remain private; the words you choose to share will be presented anonymously.
Leave a paper message
At an installation, leave a paper message, a drawing or a thought in one of the baci and take a message left by another person.
Become a story donor
You can offer your story of love, encounter or separation. It begins with a first short conversation with Barbara to introduce yourselves to each other, and then a longer conversation in which you actually share your story and are audio-recorded. She asks about your click moments: the moments that marked the beginning or the end of a relationship, and lets the conversation grow from there.
From the recording, Barbara composes an anonymous audio portrait. No names, no details that can make you recognizable. She removes her voice too, so that the listener can concentrate on your story. The conversation may be shortened considerably, but the meaning of your words is preserved. Her work is to paint a portrait through what you have told her, faithful to the story and the person speaking.
The portraits are in Italian, English and Spanish. Barbara asks you to leave out names and stay with the experience you want to share. Names and promotional references are removed in the editing. Your own words and voice are the material of the portrait.
Support the project
A voluntary contribution helps create more audio portraits, installations, workshops and public actions. It supports the practical work behind an encounter: recording and composition, materials, making and opportunities for people to come together.
Bring Baci Sospesi to your community
Write to Barbara Sbrocca about where you are, why Baci Sospesi belongs there and who else should be part of the conversation. You do not need to arrive with a perfect proposal. A serious conversation is a real beginning.
An installation needs permissions, materials, funding, knowledge, care and somebody who knows the place well enough to begin. A curator, public administrator, teacher, organiser, sponsor or citizen can open that conversation.
Begin with your town, village or organisation and a possible site or venue. Share/invite in the conversation those who know or manage the place. You can contribute with: local knowledge, organisation, materials, practical skills, funding or contacts. If there are dates or conditions to consider, include them in the email.
Contribute your practice
Artists and artisans can contribute ideas, knowledge and acts of making. Future artistic collaborations begin with the manifesto and clear agreements about principles, roles, materials, access, decisions and credit.
A new artistic interpretation begins by listening to the audio portraits and understanding the manifesto. The model Barbara wants to develop is “Artist’s name for Baci Sospesi”: the artist’s language remains visible, together with its relationship to the project. Barbara retains the final assessment of whether a proposal can carry the Baci Sospesi name.
Listen, share and introduce people
Choose a portrait and give it your full attention. Invite someone else to listen, or share the project with a school, library, museum or community that could welcome it. An introduction to people with local knowledge, practical skills or resources can help an idea become a public encounter.