Quasi Amici

On the doorbell it reads Gren-Wunsche. On the second floor of a small apartment building in Tuscany live Giulio and Gregor who, after spending several years in a residential group home for people with disabilities, now share a flat and live independently.

Giulio and Gregor, 40 and 35, are two men with Down syndrome who grew up in the Valdarno area. They both work and lead independent lives, with a routine shaped by work and free time. With the support of their families and their own determination, they have built, and continue to build, their path within society.

This project began by observing a shared home and, slowly, a friendship. Their relationship is not stated outright, it is not declared. It takes shape in being together: in how they occupy space, in the silences they learn to respect, in habits that are formed and then reshaped. Friendship grows inside this repetition, built from closeness, small frictions, and minimal acts of care.

I wanted to tell the story of their cohabitation to dismantle one of the most common prejudices about Down syndrome: "they can't live on their own". Giulio and Gregor show the opposite in the plain reality of everyday life, through imperfect autonomy, shared responsibilities, friendship, and the small tensions of being roommates. It is a concrete way to shift the gaze and question the ableist standards we often use to measure independence and adult life.

With this work I want to reflect on difference as a human condition, in an era that tends to reward standard models and push to the margins what does not fit. Telling Giulio and Gregor's story means bringing disability back into adult life, not as an exception but as part of reality.