This volume documents the artistic practice of Marinella Senatore (Cava de’ Tirreni, 1977) 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 the Museo del Novecento e del Contemporaneo of Palazzo Fabroni in Pistoia.
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 in fact 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 Cantica. 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.

Pistoia, Palazzo Fabroni, May - September 2021

Contents

Contemporary Dante in Pistoia
Elena Testaferrata

From an Installation to a Journey through the Art of Marinella Senatore
Ilaria Bernardi

It’s Time to Go Back to Street
Intermezzo
Un corpo unico
Nui Simu (That’s us)
Assembly
The School of Narrative Dance
A salire a le stelle / To Climb To The Stars
Autoritratto
Estman Radio Drama

Biography