From April 16, 2026 to June 27, 2026

Marinella Senatore. FESTA!

Mazzoleni Milano
16 April – 27 June 2026

Mazzoleni celebrates its fortieth anniversary with FESTA!, the first solo exhibition by Marinella Senatore in the new Milan space, following previous presentations in Turin (2021) and London (2022) galleries.
From the title itself, the exhibition invites to recognise artistic practice as a political act and as a celebration of the power of communitas, a concept that has been central to Senatore’s research for over two decades.
From the outset of her career, the artist has conceived her role as activator of processes and experiences in which individual subjectivities can meet and emerge with their distinct identities within shared spaces of action and thought. This vision lies at the core of The School of Narrative Dance, through which Senatore has given voice and visibility to millions of people worldwide across major national and international public commissions.
With this exhibition, the artist invites viewers to discover a new phase of her research: all the artworks on view are newly produced, including a series of embroidered tapestries created in collaboration with the Chanakya School of Craft in Mumbai, alongside sketches and drawings that intertwine her reflections on participatory practice and landscape. Each of these works addresses tradition as a device, of the present, engaging with social activation, and the transmission of craft-based knowledge.

Press release

Gallery

ph. Mazen Jannoun
ph. Mazen Jannoun
ph. Mazen Jannoun
ph. Mazen Jannoun
ph. Mazen Jannoun
ph. Mazen Jannoun
ph. Mazen Jannoun

“In an increasingly fragmented present, FESTA! reclaims the power of the collective body, of light as a public gesture, and of celebration as a practice capable of building community anew.”

Marinella Senatore

Video

“Landscape is not merely a natural backdrop or an iconographic genre, but a device in which social relations, memory, conflict and belonging are condensed. It is a living cultural archive that does not simply preserve traces, but inscribes the micro-narratives of the community within its forms,” writes Senatore.

Marinella Senatore, 1977
The Theater of Commons, 2025
Embroidered tapestry
100 x 150 cm - - 39 3/8 x 59 in
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Marinella Senatore, 1977
The Theater of Commons, 2026
Embroidered tapestry
120 x 80 cm - - 47 1/4 x 31 1/2 in
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Throughout history, festivities have assumed multiple meanings: celebrations of power, religious rituals, moments of symbolic subversion, and affirmations of identity. Today, collective manifestations — from folk festivals and parades, to civic gatherings and commemorative ceremonies — continue to function, in dialogue with the surrounding landscape, as spaces where values, forms of belonging, and shared visions of communal life are negotiated.

Marinella Senatore, 1977
The Theater of Commons, 2025
Embroidered tapestry
100 x 70 cm - - 39 3/8 x 27 1/2 in
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FESTA! draws on the long tradition of public celebrations and festive apparatuses that, between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, transformed European cities — especially Rome and Venice — into extraordinary open-air scenographic machines. Squares were animated by ephemeral structures, monumental catafalques, temporary architectures, firework devices and luminous installations that temporarily redefined urban space. Conceived by architects, artists and engineers under political or religious patronage, these apparatuses nonetheless engaged citizens in a collective, sensorial and meaning-generating experience.

Honouring this historical and cultural legacy, FESTA! emphasises the profound sense of gathering and of sharing a common space and time.

A textile experimentation emerges in the hand‑embroidered tapestries created by master artisans and graduate women artisans from Chanakya School of Craft in Mumbai — a multidimensional learning platform dedicated to arts and crafts, with a particular focus on women. Through a holistic programme that teaches more than 300 hand‑embroidery techniques, the school has trained over 1,000 women of all ages and socio-economic backgrounds. The participants collaborate with artists, fashion houses and non-profit organisations on interdisciplinary projects that promote inclusivity and artisanal excellence. This collaboration — embedded in Senatore’s participatory practice and representing a tangible expression of female empowerment — reinforces the threads connecting diverse communities, which the artist has interwoven for more than twenty years.

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