In Massa, the solo exhibition by Aldo Gallina, known by his artist name Jona, transforms Braille into a medium of expression and invites reflection on art as an experience capable of transcending the limits of sight. Local authorities, associations, and cultural organizations took part in an initiative led by Emanuela Cordiviola.
MASSA – Art can be seen. But it can also be touched, perceived, read with the fingers, and recognized through different languages. It is around this possibility that the work of Aldo Gallina, known by his artist name Jona unfolds. He is the featured artist at the Palazzo Ducale in Massa in a solo exhibition that has placed Braille at the center of the artistic experience, transforming it from a reading code into a true creative element.
A language made up of dots—seemingly simple and silent—that in Jona’s works takes on visual, tactile, and symbolic power. Braille is not simply incorporated into the work: it becomes the work, entering the composition and engaging in a dialogue with the material, with the paint, with the word, and with the space.
The exhibition, held on August 22 and 23, was thus much more than just an art event. It became a meeting place for art, culture, accessibility, and different ways of perceiving the world.
The initiative was led by Emanuela Cordiviola, a cultural promoter and event organizer, who guided the audience through a project in which the artistic dimension intertwined with the social and cultural dimensions, fostering dialogue between different worlds and sensibilities.
Particularly significant was the participation of local officials, representatives from the cultural sector, and organizations dedicated to issues of accessibility, visual impairment, and the promotion of Braille.
The exhibition was held under the patronage of the Province and the Massa chapter of the Italian Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired, with The Gram Journal as media partner.
Their presence gave the event an even broader scope: it was not merely an exhibition dedicated to a single artist, but a genuine opportunity to explore the role that art can play when it succeeds in building bridges between people, languages, and experiences.
The exhibition in Massa thus offered the public a journey in which art and accessibility do not run on separate tracks, but find common ground. Braille takes on an aesthetic power of its own and, at the same time, retains its nature as a language, prompting a broader reflection on communication and on the possibility of making the cultural experience accessible to different sensibilities.
This value has also been recognized at the institutional level. On the occasion of the exhibition, the Minister for Disabilities Alessandra Locatelli sent a letter of appreciation, highlighting the focus on an initiative capable of combining artistic expression and inclusion. In her lengthy letter, the Minister describes the exhibition as “a precious opportunity to showcase the artist’s work and his ability to use Braille as a tool for dialogue, expression, and inclusion.”
Locatelli also recognizes Jona’s work as “a testimony of great human and cultural value, capable, through art, of overcoming barriers and building a universal and accessible language, connecting people and diverse sensibilities”.
This is a significant recognition that captures one of the central aspects of the artist’s work: making accessibility not merely an added element to the artwork, but an integral part of the creative language.
Also on display is the work ‘American Flag in Braille, for which Aldo Gallina-Jona has been selected and will be honored with the Reputation Awards on October 10 at Carnegie Hall in New York.
Braille Beyond Braille
It is precisely here that Jona’s research reveals one of its most interesting aspects.
Braille originated as a tool for autonomy and knowledge—a system that makes it possible to read through touch what cannot be perceived by sight. Jona, however, takes it a step further: he preserves its communicative power while, at the same time, bringing it into the realm of art.
The dots become rhythm. The sequence becomes composition. The surface invites exploration.
In this way, one of the most deeply ingrained habits in our relationship with a work of art is called into question: the tendency to view sight as the primary—if not the sole—means of accessing the artistic experience.
Standing before Jona’s works, a question inevitably arises: are we really sure that simply looking at a work is enough to understand it?
The answer suggested by her artistic journey seems to be different. Seeing is only one possibility. There is touch, memory, language, symbolism, and emotion. Above all, there is the encounter between the creator and the viewer who engages with what has been created.
Art that is inclusive without losing its identity
The strength of the project also lies in its ability to address the theme of inclusion without reducing it to a mere declarative message.
Accessibility, in fact, becomes part of the artist’s very language.
It is not something added to the work afterward: it becomes a structural part of it.
And this is perhaps one of the most contemporary insights offered by the exhibition in Massa. Inclusive art need not necessarily sacrifice complexity, exploration, or freedom of expression. On the contrary, it can expand its vocabulary and explore who might engage with it and through what means.
The participation of institutions, cultural organizations, and associations linked to the world of visual impairment has reinforced this message, transforming Palazzo Ducale into a space for dialogue where artistic language meets social language.
The exhibition also featured a work born from the collaboration between Jona and Antonella Gramigna, a journalist, writer, and editor-in-chief of The Gram Journal—further evidence of the artist’s desire to open her practice to the interplay between words, thought, and imagery.
At the opening of the CON-TATTO exhibition, Aldo Gallina – Jona presented “SVELATURE,” a work born from the encounter between poetic verses and Braille, made possible by Jona’s artistic sensibility.
A work that attempts to reverse the perspective: this time, it is the sighted person who finds themselves at a loss, faced with a text they cannot simply read with their eyes.
The words elude the gaze and demand another way of being understood. Braille, a language we often consider intended for the blind, thus becomes the key to accessing the work.
The “erasures“ call into question the very concept of disability: what happens when, suddenly, we are the ones who lack the necessary code to read?
It is from this reversal that the work’s deepest meaning emerges: there is no single way to see, read, and understand the world.
Jona, a multifaceted artist, explores painting, sculpture, poetry, and material experimentation without allowing himself to be confined by a single definition. In his work, however, Braille has become a highly recognizable feature—almost a conceptual signature through which he addresses communication, identity, and perception.
And perhaps this is precisely the message that the exhibition in Massa conveys to visitors: art does not belong exclusively to the eyes.
It can be experienced through the hands, a surface, or a sequence of dots. It can emerge from silence and still manage to speak.
Because when Braille enters Jona’s work, it is no longer merely a code to be deciphered.
It becomes matter, presence, and a universal language. And it reminds us that there are many ways to see, even without relying solely on the gaze.
