Dante Today

Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture

…and Thence We Came Forth To See Again The Stars, Group Exhibition

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“The Flat-Massimo Carasi gallery reopens its doors to the public, after the protracted closure due to Covid 19, with a collective that look forward for a restart. Convinced that the physical space of the gallery will resist the broadsides of innovations and will remain an essential point of meeting and sharing with the public, we recognize that no man / woman is an island even in its own solitude (a very crowded solitude). Art, in all its disciplines, remains the most enthralling mystery and witnessing its representations in first person will simply remain of VITAL importance. We identify the works of art with the stars, to which Dante refers and illuminate the dark, so in this context we have chosen for the end of the season program, a roundup of works that would like to shape a physiognomy of contemporary being with her/his passions and obsessions, between damnation and holiness, bewilderment and hope.These are works that refer to woman/man but do not portray her/him directly. Instead they evoke his presence by interpreting the fetishes that are left behind as traces. The invited artists, using new and traditional media, adopt the most varied techniques to grasp the human dimension with sometimes simple, or sometimes, categorical gestures.”   —Stefano Caimi, Michael Johansson, Guillaume Linard Osorio, Sali Muller, Jack Otway, Michelangelo Penso, Leonardo Ulian, …and Thence We Came Forth To See Again The Stars, Leonard Oulian, June 11-September 4, 2020 (retrieved on March 28, 2024)

“’Dante’s Inferno Meets Final Fantasy Meets the Muppets:’ Don’t Miss This Fashion Show at the Vancouver Art Gallery,” Vancouver Magazine Article

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“From a fashion perspective, costume is a dirty word,’ says local designer Evan Clayton. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Clayton says he was more focused on the commerciality of his pieces. But in the last two years, he’s embraced making clothes that are joyfully outrageous.

“This Saturday, September 24, is Clayton’s first solo show in several years. It’s called Inferno for the 14th-century Dante Alighieri poem—but don’t expect old-fashioned, well, fashion. ‘Think Dante’s Inferno meets Final Fantasy meets The Muppets,’ says Clayton. The show stars local drag queens and trans performers, including Kendall Gender, Gia Metric, Jane Smoker, Isabella, Patch, Berlin and Venus.

“Instead of fixating on the potential marketability of the garments, Clayton is fully focused on fun. ‘All of the pieces are costume, basically—there is hardly anything wearable,’ he says with a laugh. The designer shares he’s always felt like a bit of an outsider in the fashion industry, creating pieces that walk the line between ‘fashion’ and ‘costume.’ ‘I’m building out this niche I have, melding the two—but I also think that there are a lot of great figures in fashion that approached their design in the same way,’ says Clayton, naming Thierry Mugler and Alexander McQueen: ‘those weren’t fashion shows, they were drag shows!’

“Inferno is taking place at the Vancouver Art Gallery, and it’s not going to be like a standard runway show. Expect characters, story arcs and references to follow—like watching a play, but make it fashion. And above all, expect to be wowed. ‘My goal isn’t to sell people these clothes—I know that the average consumer isn’t going to want to wear a complete rhinestoned catsuit to the grocery store,’ says Clayton. ‘What I’m sharing is craftsmanship, a really strong aesthetic, and a story.”   —Alyssa Hirose, “Dante’s Inferno Meets Final Fantasy Meets the Muppets:’ Don’t Miss This Fashion Show at the Vancouver Art Gallery,” Vancouver Magazine, September 20, 2022 (retrieved February 29, 2024)

Exhibit “Ridon le carte. Edizioni illustrate della Commedia in Francia… e altrove” (March 1-22, 2024)

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The exhibit “Ridon le carte: Dante tradoto e illustrato in Francia (e altrove)” runs from March 1-22, 2024, in the Biblioteca Marucelliana in Florence. The opening will be commemorated with a lecture by Paul Bitner, collector and specialist in the history of the book and of illustration.

“Come tradurre in immagini la poesia immaginifica di Dante? Paul Bitner, collezionista, esporrà per la prima volta a Firenze la sua collezione di edizioni illustrate di Dante in francese. Accanto a questa mostra, che sarà inaugurata venerdì 1 marzo alla Biblioteca Marucelliana di Firenze, l’incontro all’Istituto Francese si propone di far luce sulla diversità delle illustrazioni dantesche prodotte fuori dalla penisola italiana, dalla metà dell’Ottocento a oggi . Dall’editoria bibliofila all’editoria popolare passando per l’editoria per giovani, dalla Francia o dai paesi francofoni alla Danimarca passando per l’Ucraina, dall’acquaforte alla fotografia passando per l’incisione su legno, l’accento è posto sulla molteplicità degli stili e delle tecniche, e infine sulle prodigiose ricchezza delle visioni iconografiche che l’opera del divino poeta ha suscitato. Queste poche tracce storiografiche rivelano soprattutto una cartografia proliferante di sovrapposizioni e intrecci delle traiettorie di un’immaginazione dantesca, un’incessante variazione di interpretazioni, incomparabile nella sua scala, nella sua diversità e nella sua durata; ciò che l’illustrazione dimostra.”   —Institut Français Firenze

See the flyer for the exhibit opening here (pictured above) and the program for the dedicated giornata di studio—with talks by a dozen scholars on Dante’s reception in Chinese, Danish, French, German, Spanish, and other traditions—here. The inaugural lecture will be held on February 29 and the conference on March 7, 2024.

Contributed by Paul Bitner

 

Danielius Sodeika “Midway Upon the Journey of Our Life…”

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“Artworks of Danielius Sodeika are self-purposed. He doesn‘t make them for himself nor others. They appear to be more like questions leaning towards, like the way to check up if the impulse of the vector has continuance.”

“Small-scale sculptural objects from wood, metal, household elements or findings. With their form they remind religious, cultural or archetypal symbols. Storyline is more than in the objects themselves, but also in the spaces between – as signs of invisible power – that tightens chain and breaks the log. Probably it is artist’s way to speak about finality and inevitable entropy – because when it comes – it dominates over all demolishes all other meanings.”

Explore Danielius Sodeika’s exhibit here.

“Midway upon the journey of our life I found myself a forest dark, For the straightforward pathway had been lost.”    -Dante Alighieri

 

L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle Exhibit at the CityLife Park in Milan

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“In collaborazione con Kooness.com e Arte Generali, ‘L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle’ è la grande mostra pubblica disseminata nel Parco di CityLife. Organizzata nell’ambito delle celebrazioni dantesche, gli artisti presenti si sono confrontati con i temi di esilito, invenzione e linguaggio.

“A fare da cappello introduttivo alla mostra un elemento surreale: una pensilina (opera di Michela Lucenti, Fermata Tre Colori) installata all’interno del parco, sul bordo di un sentiero interno, che segna la linea 33 in “Piazza Tre Colori”: in realtà nessun autobus passerà mai da quella fermata, che assolve invece alla funzione di mappa in cui trovare i riferimenti alle opere disseminate nel verde di CityLife. Si tratta di lavori accomunati dalle stesse tematiche ma sviluppati attraverso l’impiego dei più disparati materiali, tecniche e esiti creativi: dall’opera sonora di Roberto Cacciapaglia, Cammino stellare, a quella interattiva di Matteo Vettorello, Sintonizzatore di decongestione ambientale, dalla fotografia Beatrice e il Poeta di Giovanni Gastel al noto Terzo Paradiso di Michelangelo Pistoletto. Il riflesso aureo è al centro delle opere di Alice Ronchi, con SOLE/SUN e quella di Marco Nereo Rotelli, Il Sole e le altre “Stelle”; lo sguardo è il filo conduttore dell’opera di Alice Padovani (Lo sguardo sospeso/The suspense gaze) mentre la trascendenza lo è in Drop the body, di Patrick Tuttofuoco. Infine, il Paradiso dantesco è evocato da Silt Prophecy di Lucia Cristiani, che rappresenta un fondale argenteo in cui scorre un flusso d’acqua (realizzato in stagno), e Paradisi di Velasco Vitali, trentatré uccelli in bronzo patinato i quali posano sui rami di trentatré alberi piantati nel prato di CityLife.”[. . .]    –Giulia Ronchi, Artribune, March 29, 2021 (retrieved April 12, 2022)

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Coggeshall, Elizabeth, and Arielle Saiber, eds. Dante Today: Citings and Sightings of Dante’s Works in Contemporary Culture. Website. Access date.

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