Franco Bellucci's self-made toys are all of his life, his present, his past and future. They are also mysterious works of art, a powerful example of uselessness of violence and detention against mental problems, unfortunately still heavily enforced in many countries and situations. Stories like Franco's seem to show that relief is possible only through beauty, respect and humanity.
Hulk's Toys - Visitors to the first international exhibition of Franco Bellucci self-made toys that took place at the Mad Musée in Liège (Belgium). Franco Bellucci was detained in an italian asylum since his childhood, during 40 years, 15 tied to his bed all day long. Nowadays he lives in an open facility in Livorno, Italy, where his condition is respected and his creativity is encouraged. His main interest is in his toys, that he makes everyday by himself tying in knots all kind of materials.
His toys come from all possible kind of wires, cords and objects. One of the main reasons for his 40 years long detention was his destructivenes towards things combined with his great force. Today, this impulse has transformed almost completely in a creative one.
Rooms are made for two in the open mental health facility. For people like Franco, having lived all their lives in mental institutions, subject to violence, physical restrictions during years, it would be impossible to take care of themselves alone. In asylums, in those big rooms where tens and hundreds of people were detained together, social exchange was almost non-existent.
Riccardo Bargellini, artist, facilitates visual expression workshops for patients of the mental health district in Livorno. He was one of the first to notice and encourage Franco's creativity, bringing him recycled material and dismissed toys. He is also the one that organizes exhibits of Franco's work.
In 1978, when a law abolished asylums in Italy, Franco went to stay for a short period in his childhood house with his family. The very first thing he did when entering his house, after almost twenty years of detention, was to go look in the room they shared with his brother Mario, in the box where he used to keep his toys as a child.
Franco lives in an open facility since 1998, with others that like him, after being freed from asylums, did not have a family anymore that could take them in charge. Here, a rainy day, bad mood.
People working in the facility play a major role in taking care of Franco and the others. There is always a word of simpathy for each one.
ranco was detained during 40 years in an asylum. During 15 years, he was constantly tied to his bed. One day, while firmly attached, his bed was set on fire.
Rainy day, bad mood.
When, in 1998, the asylum where he lived was finally closed down, 20 years after the 1978 law abolishing it, Franco did not speak and was absolutely not capable of taking care of himself. Franco was received in a public open mental health facility in Livorno, where he has lived ever since. Here, an innovative approach towards mental health is conducted, not only as a therapeutical appendix, but as an equally important method to establish self-esteem, respect and social exchange with the external world. This means encouraging creativity, as for Franco and many others, and empowering people through cooperative remunerated work. Last but not least, it means opening the facility to the general public as much as possible, in an attempt to reduce social stigma on mental health.
His only family left is his brother Mario, who took care of him during all his life. Due to his age and health problems, it would be almost impossible for him to adequately take care of Franco. He visits frequently, and they go out for the day during weekends, a moment that Franco expects with great anticipation.
Franco, here in their childhood home with his brother Mario, has a deep relationship with him. Mario also encourages and is very patient with Franco's passion for his self-made toys.
Mario is his only family left. He takes care of him as he did all his life.
A sunday by the sea, in Livorno. Although his height and force has certainly contributed to create a sense of insecurity in people who did not know him, Franco's destructiveness has always been directed only towards things and objects, and never, in no occasion, to people.
Making his own toys is a lenghty process for Franco, during which he adds detalis, knots, objects over and over again.
His toys are a constant thought to Franco. He only sometimes accepts to exchange them for new material, to make again others.
Franco has deeply suffered from the 40 years he was force to spend in the asylum, tied to his bed, exposed to violence and often inhuman treatments. Today, he lives a life made of his toys in a facility which is his home and where he is treated with respect and humanity. Although he sometimes cries, he seems to hold no anger towards the world.
Toy #1
Toy #2
Toy #3
Toy #4
Toy #5
Toy #6
Trieste. The first asylum to be opened by Franco Basaglia, where patients were freed. "Truth is revolutionary".
“Hulk's Toys” is the story of a man and his self-made toys.
Franco Bellucci lived for four decades, since his childhood in the early '60s, detained in an asylum in Volterra, Italy, due to his compulsive destructivity towards objects. For fifteen years, he was constantly tied to his bed, as a mean of containing his great force.
In 1998, twenty years after asylums had become illegal in Italy, thanks to a law inspired by psychiatrist Basaglia, he was accepted in an open facility in Livorno, for people that like him, after so many years of institutionalization in asylums, could not take care of themselves anymore. There, at first, they called him Hulk, but his condition was respected, and his creativity encouraged. 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.
The closing picture is a photograph of the ex-asylum in Trieste, where Franco Basaglia, as the director of the mental institution, together with his staff, first started the long haul for the recognition of rights of the patients as persons, by opening the gates and letting the patients make their peaceful demonstration in the streets. That was the first public act that eventually lead to the promulgation of the reform bearing his name, in 1978.
Quotes from Franco Basaglia writings on psychiatry and the situation of the asylums in Italy constitute the theoretical and cultural background for this project. Indeed, 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, and taste a better life, 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.
This project has been awarded the Lucie Foundation Emerging Scholarship in 2012.
A working preview of the multimedia documentary "Hulk's Toys" (in progress) is here:
vimeo.com/tommasobarsali/hulkstoys
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