Surrogate motherhood is a crime, the Sardinian artist's "blue" protest: "We are invisible to society"

Two men and a child, hand in hand in the streets of the historic center of Milan, all dressed in blue, from feet to face.

The 44-year-old Sardinian artist Nicola Mette stages a new performance/action to raise awareness on the issue of civil rights , this time three days after the presentation in Parliament of the bill against surrogacy , declared a universal crime, and which provides for the punishment only for Italian citizens who will resort to it.

"A crazy text that wants to hinder the possibility for couples, not only homosexuals, to build a family ", explains Mette, who together with his friend Mattia and little Daniel, his pupil at school, wore a blue overalls and walked around the streets of the Milanese city, among the incredulous gazes of tourists.

The three were symbolically a rainbow family, faceless because without rights, «people who move around our cities every day, work and develop like any traditional family. Although invisible, real people who already exist in Italy, who want to live with dignity , and express their identity in the best possible way within a society that does not discriminate against them».

The stages: first of all the Prefecture, from which, following a provision by the Ministry of the Interior, the stop to the transcription of the children of same-parent couples started. A decision that "leaves many children in an unequal situation compared to the children of heterosexual couples". And then San Babila, the Duomo, the Royal Palace, the Museo del Novecento, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, the Palazzo Marino, the seat of the Municipality of Milan.

The performance is called "Surrogates" because "in the eyes of this government we have no right or law that protects us". From the Zan bill against homotransphobia, scuttled several times in Parliament, to the law on civil unions, "which are not recognized in the same way as heterosexual marriages". And now also the attempt to remove the rights of children born from surrogacy and their parents.

The Meloni government took office a few months ago but, according to Mette, immediately made it clear that the priority of the right is to limit the rights of LGBTQIA+ people , following the ultra-conservative and reactionary model of Orbàn's policies . “All priorities are the same: we need more efficient healthcare, cheaper rents, higher quality of life. And more civil rights. In short, this government must get busy ».

Militant artist, Mette lives and works between Sardinia, Rome and Milan and for years has been investigating man, not only in his sexuality, but also in his inner conflicts, in his hypocrisies. Among his other exhibitions Invisibili in Chefchaolen – Morocco, Foce and Pvc in Bosa Marina, Janas in the necropolis of Filigosa in Macomer.

Surrogates is precisely the continuation of the performance/action Invisibili, staged for the first time in Milan in 2016 . Last February it was revived in Morocco to denounce all the countries that still persecute, sometimes even to the point of death, LGBTQIA+ people: in the center of Chefchaouen, wearing a blue robe, the artist walked camouflaging between the houses and blue streets in one of the countries most guilty of very serious violations of human rights.

"Italy must go forward and not go backwards - concludes Mette - and I, as a homosexual, would just like to create a family like anyone else ".