In Rome, a unique exhibition on Dante amid radioactive hells and electronic music

A radioactive Inferno and a dazzling Paradise, monumental visions in which dozens of figures are crowded together, electronic music and the 15th-century miniatures of Giovanni di Paolo (Siena, 1398 - 1482), ecological themes and a journey through words unknown or that we think we know to discover the beauty of the language we speak: it is Dante Alighieri inedito that is proposed in Rome by Rhinoceros gallery and Fondazione Alda Fendi - Esperimenti (which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year). It is Dante, an immersive project that puts together, from April 15 to July 15, 2021, photography and multimedia installations in the heart of Rome, at the Velabro, in the sign of Dante Alighieri (Florence, 1265 - Ravenna, 1321). All inside the Rhinoceros Palace, designed for Alda Fendi by Jean Nouvel.

On the occasion of the Dantesque celebrations called to mark seven hundred years since the death of the Supreme Poet, the spaces of rhinoceros gallery in Via dei Cerchi 19 open to host an original reinterpretation of the Divine Comedy that stems from the intertwining of Claudia Rogge ’s EverAfter photographic project (pictured) and DANTE. In a private dream by Raffaele Curi and the presentation of the La parola di Dante initiative fresh from theAccademia della Crusca. Thus, the exhibition aims to bring together multifarious stimuli and different research paths, amalgamated into a path that is embedded in the architecture designed by Jean Nouvel. The event is presented, by invitation only, on Thursday, April 15, and from the following day the gallery opens to the public by reservation. Admission is free.

Claudia Rogge’s photographs.

Pivotal to the project on Dante Alighieri is the EverAfter exhibition of large-scale photographs by German artist Claudia Rogge, which rhinoceros is presenting to the public for the first time in Rome in the commercial spaces of its gallery. Born in Düsseldorf, Germany, in 1968, Claudia Rogge created the series of works that gives the exhibition its title in 2011, drawing inspiration precisely from the Divine Comedyand representing the three realms of Dante’s netherworld, Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, in a personal and contemporary sense. Visitors are confronted with visionary images that seem to be inspired by ancient painting; they are complex scenes of great visual impact, animated by dozens of figures piled on top of each other, naked bodies that writhe or rise according to the cantica imagined by the artist. The technique that Claudia Rogge adopts for the realization of these works of strongly theatrical implantation is peculiar and involves the posing and shooting of dozens of individual photographs, as many as the protagonists of the image, which are later composed through a substantial digital processing work so as to articulate themselves into a single imposing vision, sumptuous in its refined visual architecture. In both form and content, the richness of this narrative in images poses in the artist’s intentions profound questions about faith in an increasingly secularized Western society.

Also on view in the exhibition are some works from the Rapport series also by Claudia Rogge from 2005: these are portraits of young female figures that, throughdigital processing, are multiplied infinitely. The faces of the protagonists are almost always concealed and even where they are visible they nevertheless remain expressionless, dehumanized, without thereby in any way detracting from the beauty of the bodies contemplated and the harmony of the composition, rather enhancing these components in a refined aestheticization. The individual for Rogge becomes mass, rising to pure aesthetic value, without any ideological or didactic intent.

DANTE. In a private dream

Claudia Rogge’s photographic journey becomes intertwined with an installation journey within the exhibition spaces. DANTE. In a private dream of Raffaele C uri is the name of the intervention imagined by Raffaele Curi, artistic director of Fondazione Alda Fendi - Esperimenti, which mixes multi-sensory suggestions and proposes in the halls of rhinoceros gallery a new and original reinterpretation of the forest of suicides described by Alighieri in Canto XIII ofInferno. To what would correspond in today’s world the dark forest characterized by twisted branches bristling with thorns that is sung by the Supreme Poet? The answer is found in the petrified forests of 20th century nuclear disasters. It is a rock opera about a radioactive Dante that is imagined by Raffaele Curi, who hinges his reflection on the environmental and ecological issues that are increasingly dear to the new generations, attentive to a responsible and sustainable use of natural resources and to curbing man-made damage to the life of the planet.

Thus, after viewing Claudia Rogge’s exhibition, one passes inside a dark room in which a compulsory, non-linear path unfolds, which visitors are invited to take while being enveloped by a large multimedia installation. The space of this Dantesque nightmare is punctuated by the presence of monitors that descend from the ceiling at different heights, spreading a dim, ghostly light over what appears to be an electronic forest in which to get lost. The monitors are tuned to the four radioactive cities of Chernobyl, Hiroshima, Sellafield, and Harrisburg, drenched in the electronic music that forms the soundtrack of this contemporary Inferno, played at extremely high volume. The different stimulations combine to weave a single enveloping experience of great emotional impact and not recommended for those suffering from claustrophobia, at the seal of which stands out the Dantean verse, almost a warning, uttered by Pier delle Vigne: “Uomini fummo, e ora siam fatti sterpi.” For DANTE. In a private dream of Raffaele Curi, the critical text is edited by Vittorio Sgarbi.

A dazzling paradise

In stark contrast to the gravity of tones of the Inferno, on the upper level of the exhibition space the atmosphere becomes lighter and more rarefied, in the experience of an intimate vision of Paradise that pays homage to Alighieri through the work of the Tuscan painter Giovanni di Paolo di Grazia, who was born in 1398 and died in 1482. The multimedia installation, usable for one viewer at a time, aims to bring to life a celestial space. Inside, the reproduction of a famous miniature by the Sienese master illustrating the final stages of Dante’s journey in the company of Beatrice, taken from the Yates Thompson Manuscript 36 preserved at the British Library in London, stands out on monitors and lightboxes in a triumph of light. The entire room is illuminated by strong golden lighting that envelops, embraces and almost dazzles visitors, accompanying them with the slender, faint sounds of Denmark+Winter. The audience is advised to bring sunglasses, as they may be helpful in not being overwhelmed by this luminous manifestation that sings, with the last verse of Dante’s poem, “L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.”

Dante’s word with the Accademia della Crusca

The Accademia della Crusca, in a short-circuit between social networks and exhibition screens, is proposing within rhinoceros gallery its initiative Dante’s Word Fresh of the Day, that is, a florilegium of common expressions and Dante’s neologisms, Latinisms, onomatopoeias, a lexical heritage that demonstrates the infinite richness and vitality of Italian through the centuries. A word a day, accompanied by a brief commentary and the Dantean quotation from which it is taken, comes out of the books and is proposed by the Accademia della Crusca on its Instagram profile, to which a special space is also dedicated in the exhibition, proposed to visitors inside one of the palace’s architectures, designed by Jean Nouvel, accompanied by Dantean readings.

The Alda Fendi Foundation - Experiments is not new to collaborations with other important national or international institutions. Suffice it to mention the example of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg with which, under a cooperation agreement, the sculpture The Adolescent attributed toMichelangelo and the painting St. Peter and St. Paul by El Greco, attracting a very high number of visitors, or before that the example of the Uffizi Galleries in Florence with the loan of the work Hercules and Antheus by Antonio del Pollaiolo.

For all information you can call +39 340.6430435 or send an email to info@rhinocerosgallery.com.

In Rome, a unique exhibition on Dante amid radioactive hells and electronic music

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