Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen opens Marinella Senatore Public Secrets

Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen presents Marinella Senatore Public Secrets on 1 February–13 April 2014.

Collaboration is the most important component of Marinella Senatore’s concept of art. The Italian artist (b. 1977) involves thousands of people in her elaborate projects as producers, writers and in other roles to create, for example, parades, operas and radio programmes. She is not only concerned with triggering social processes but also with questioning concepts such as community and social responsibility, finding new narrative forms and ultimately in generating a collective memory through joint action. Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen is showing documentary material and the results of several of her projects, for instance in the form of films, and is launching a new particípative venture: Estman Radio.

The exhibition is showing the archive of Speak Easy (2009)—a project which involved around a hundred students from the Computense University of Madrid and more than one thousand residents of a Madrid suburb, including retired carpenters, seamstresses, craftspeople and professional actors. They worked together on a film from the conception of a screenplay to the construction of the film set to costume production. As is generally the case in Senatore’s projects, what is ultimately decisive is not the “end-product” (in this case a video of a musical, set in New York in the 1950s), it is rather the exchange that takes place between the participants during the production process. This process is shown at the Kunst Halle with drawings, sketches and other documentary material.

An even larger collective worked on Rosas (2012), an opera in three acts which involved more than 20,000 people in Berlin, Derby and Madrid. Here too the numerous participants encompassed professional dance groups, amateur actors, carpenters, art students and community choirs who were involved in writing the libretto, as actors, singers or working as film crew. They were prepared for the various roles and jobs necessary for the production of the opera at free workshops led by local experts. Rosas is presented at the Kunst Halle in a multi-part video installation.

The fact that Marinella Senatore sees her art as social engagement is shown especially clearly by the School of Narrative Dance, which she founded in 2013: a mobile, free school with a system based on emancipation, inclusion and self-training with the aims of literacy, sharing of skills and sustainability. The multi-disciplinary school focuses on narration using a wide spectrum of forms of expression such as dance, film, performance, poetry, oral history, literature and handcraft.

And finally Marinella Senatore also wants to include the public in St. Gallen with the launch of Estman Radio at the Kunst Halle, a web-based audio project. Everybody is invited to participate by recording and uploading podcasts at the work station provided. A productive community is thus formed and the exhibition used as a platform. www.estmanradio.com

Biographical information:
Marinella Senatore (b. 1977, Cava dei Tirreni, IT) studied at the University of Castilla-La Mancha (2008–2012) and the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (National Film School) in Rome. Today she lives in Berlin. Solo exhibitions (selection): Castello di Rivoli, Rivoli Turin, IT; Italian Institute, New York (2013); Peres Projects, Berlin; Quad, Derby, UK; ViaFarini, Milan; Matadero, Madrid; Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (2012); and Macro Museum, Rome (2011). Group exhibitions (selection): Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art, SE; Depo, Istanbul (2013); Muzeon Arts Park, Moscow; 3rd Moscow International Biennial for Young Art; Serpentine Gallery, London; Victoria Theater, San Francisco (2012); 54. Venice Biennale; Dublin Contemporary; ISCP, New York; and Riso Museum, Palermo, IT (2011).

Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen
Davidstrasse 40
9000 St. Gallen
Switzerland
www.k9000.ch