Valeria Cherchi, 3350 gr. Photographs and Letters on Obstetric Violence
curated by Elisabetta Masala
Contemporary photography plays a crucial role in revealing issues that remain at the margins of public debate, fostering dialogue between image, writing, and activism. Valeria Cherchi’s 3350 gr. Photographs and Letters on Obstetric Violence, one of the awardees of Strategia Fotografia 2025, is firmly situated within this trajectory. The photo-text publication curated by Elisabetta Masala and promoted by MAN marks the final stage of a long-term photographic project addressing obstetric and gynaecological violence and the harm it generates on individual, social, and political levels.
The project stems from a personal story: the death, at six months old, of the artist’s namesake sister following an unreported episode of obstetric violence. The editorial work, currently in progress, brings together archival documents, original photographs, authorial letters, and critical texts, shedding light on a complex and too often silenced reality.
In 2014, the World Health Organization issued a statement calling for the elimination of mistreatment during labour and childbirth, recognising obstetric violence as a problem at the intersection of public health and human rights. According to a 2017 Doxa survey, 21% of Italian mothers have experienced obstetric violence, yet Italy still lacks legislation protecting them. Only recently (March 2025) has Portugal become the first European country to legally recognise and sanction obstetric violence.
Within this context, Cherchi’s project stands as a tool for knowledge and denunciation. Through images and texts, her artistic practice opens spaces of awareness and transformation, exploring the traumas linked to perinatal loss and the systemic inequalities affecting bodies across gender, class, and origin.
The bilingual Italian/English volume, published by Mousse, will include texts by Elisabetta Masala, Patrizia Quattrocchi, Valeria Cherchi, and Anna Balogi, each addressing the complexity of the topic from curatorial, anthropological, artistic, and sociological perspectives.
3350 gr. Photographs and Letters on Obstetric Violence thus takes shape as a project of strong social impact, a space of memory and resistance in which the narration of trauma becomes an act of care and collective restitution.
