Dante’s Pizza & Pasta is located in La Piazza Square in Klerksdorp, South Africa.
Jane Alexander, Frontier With Church (2012-2014)
“In Frontier With Church, the artist makes direct reference to the procession encountered by Dante and Matilda at the summit of Mount Purgatory, interpreted in the temporal contexts of proselytism, migration, and trade, on their way to paradise. With Matilda—who clearly prepares Dante for his meeting with Beatrice—Dante witnesses a procession which forms an allegory within the allegory, somewhat like Shakespeare’s play with a play, in which the characters are walking symbols rather than real people. Alexander’s tableau is thus intended to represent the earthly paradise, a borderline space between earth and divine sanctuary: a frontier with attendants, messengers, custodians, and cargo. The tension revolves around human figures rendered with extreme realis, concurring in the creation of the moment before Dante’s meeting with the woman who (allegorically) symbolizes the path to God. All the creatures of the tableau are life-sized and share the real space occupied by the Viewer/s. They have a spectral presence within that space which silently enacts a living history.”
From The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell Revisited by Contemporary African Artists by Simon Njami.
For more on the South African artist, see Wikipedia.
Sylvain Reynard, Gabriel’s Inferno (2012 novel; 2020 film adaptation by Passionflix)
“Enigmatic and sexy, Professor Gabriel Emerson is a well-respected Dante specialist by day, but by night he devotes himself to an uninhibited life of pleasure. He uses his notorious good looks and sophisticated charm to gratify his every whim, but is secretly tortured by his dark past and consumed by the profound belief that he is beyond all hope of redemption.
“When the sweet and innocent Julia Mitchell enrolls as his graduate student, his attraction and mysterious connection to her not only jeopardizes his career, but sends him on a journey in which his past and his present collide.
“An intriguing and sinful exploration of seduction, forbidden love, and redemption, Gabriel’s Inferno is a captivating and wildly passionate tale of one man’s escape from his own personal hell as he tries to earn the impossible—forgiveness and love.” —Penguin Random House
The 2012 novel, set in Toronto, was adapted into a three-part series of films starring Giulio Berruti and Melanie Zanetti and directed by South African filmmaker Tosca Musk. It was produced and released by Musk’s company Passionflix in 2020. The image above comes from the Amazon Prime Video page for the film (retrieved July 26, 2021; no longer active as of July 2023). Gabriel’s Rapture (Part Two; three-part series) was released in 2021-2022, and the first installment of Part Three: Gabriel’s Redemption (also a projected three-part series) was released in 2023.
For updates on the film series (and to view), see Passionflix’s website. See more about the film’s first installment on the IMDB page here.
Contributed by Margaret Goodspeed
Nine Circles of Hell for Whiteys in South Africa Comic
“The Nine Circles of Hell for Whiteys in South Africa” is a comic posted by Alastair Laird, commenting on the different levels of racism for white people in South Africa. The comic is full of South African slang that may be difficult to understand for someone outside of that culture, but a few searches on the internet can help a reader decipher the words.
This comic was posted on Mahala, “a free South African music, culture and reality magazine that strives to report and represent what’s really happening along the fault line and in the trenches of South African culture. Mahala is home to challenging and incisive political and social commentary and strong, fearless opinions. We promote freedom of thought and expression. We’re available online, on your mobile and in print. We’ll always be free, gratis and Mahala. Because you deserve quality information, opinion and entertainment for free! Thought is free!” — cited from Mahala’s About page
Read the full comic here.
“Inferno & Paradiso” a photojournalistic exhibit in South Africa (2001)
“. . .World renowned artist/photographer Alfredo Jaar curated this show which is presented as a collaboration between the SANG, the BildMuseet in Umea, Sweden, and Riksutstallningar, the Swedish Travelling Exhibitions Organisation. His curatorial method was this: ‘I invited 18 photojournalists from around the world to contribute two images to the exhibition (inspired by Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy). For ‘Inferno’ I asked them to select the single image that was the most difficult to produce, the one that caused the most pain and anguish. And for ‘Paradiso’, the most joyful one, the one that has given them the most happiness in the world.’ ”
–Sue Williamson, Art Throb
Contributed by Charlie Russell (Bowdoin, ’08)
