Specially produced for Palazzo Strozzi, the installation for the courtyard consists of a light installation inspired by the popular Southern Italian luminaria or “artist’s lighting” tradition. The structure, which is over ten metres high and made up of hundreds of LED lights, engulf the palazzo’s Renaissance proportions, involving the visitor in an aesthetic short-circuit, in an experience midway between history, popular culture and social structures, the three elements which underpin Marinella Senatore’s art.
Produced by the artist in conjunction with craftsmen from Puglia, the luminarie are typical of the artist’s practice on account of their social value; by creating an ephemeral structure, Senatore creates a temporary space for socialisation. In Palazzo Strozzi, these colourful lights will interweave with one another to form evocative architectural shapes made of different colours which, in their turn, will frame three phrases inspired by poetic reflections on the concepts of emancipation, inclusion and participation: “The world community feels good”, “Breathe, you are enough” and “We rise by lifting others”, the phrase which is also its title serves as a direct invitation to forge new awareness, motivation and emancipation in our relationships with others.
The courtyard will become a venue for encounter and exchange, with its huge doors open to the city: a crossroad, a place for pause and meditation, and a “space within a space” inviting us to take back our sense of community and our relation to our fellow human beings, but also a place that generates strength, energy and narration.
From 3 December 2020 to 7 February 2021, every day from 9.00 to 20.00
Curated by Arturo Galansino, Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi’s Director General
Photos: photoOKNOstudio
