MARINELLA SENATORE
A SALIRE A LE STELLE / TO CLIMB TO THE STARS
A SALIRE A LE STELLE / TO CLIMB TO THE STARS
Cinisello Balsamo (Milan): Silvana Editoriale, 2021
This volume, edited by Ilaria Bernardi on the occasion of the solo show by Marinella Senatore (Cava de’ Tirreni, 1977) at the Museo del Novecento e del Contemporaneo of Palazzo Fabroni in Pistoia, documents the artist’s practice with a selection of works, from the past as well as more recent ones, exemplifying her production. In particular, it delves into the new work titled A salire a le stelle / To Climb To The Stars, donated by the artist to Palazzo Fabroni.
The installation is one of the five winning projects of the Dante Section of the public call Cantica21. Italian Contemporary Art Everywhere, promoted by the Directorate General for the Promotion of the Country System of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and by the Directorate General for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture. The work is inspired by Cantos XXIV and XXV of Dante’s Inferno, in which the poet tells the story of a native of Pistoia, Vanni Fucci, a Black Guelph who is considered the darkest character in all of the canticle. The artist imagines a catharsis of Vanni Fucci from the Inferno – where he is punished for the theft from the ‘sagrestia d’i belli arredi’ (sacristy of the fair adornments) in Pistoia – to Purgatory, and, lastly, to Paradise. Hence the title of the work, taken from Canto XXXIII, l. 144, of the Purgatorio.