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Weekend in Ravenna with Dante (also in the “pop” version)

There is always a good reason to come back to Ravenna: rediscover its Unesco heritage mosaics that tell its great history, its churches and its ancient buildings, the street art that with eighty works makes it (also) capital of Street Art. But this city is even more: is one of Dante’s places, “The last refuge” that welcomed the Supreme Poet in exile and in which he concluded the drafting of the Divine Comedy. Also for this reason, on the occasion of the 700th anniversary of his death, this year is the perfect opportunity to rediscover the places most dear to him and which inspired him, before and after big news.

In addition to the great classics related to Dante such as the zone of Silence – built around the poet’s tomb which includes the Quadrarco of Braccioforte, the church of San Francesco and the Franciscan convent complex – or the traces of the Fourteenth-century Ravenna (where Dante spent his last years, from the houses of the Da Polenta and that of the Traversari to the pine forest mentioned in the description of the earthly paradise), this autumn Ravenna has unmissable openings linked to the poet in store.

DANTE HOUSE
First of all Dante House, the last stage of the Dante Museum exhibition itinerary, housed in a fourteenth-century noble residence: one multifunctional space which includes a meditative courtyard in continuity with the Zone of Silence, an educational laboratory for students, a bookshop and exhibition rooms full of wonders. The first, created in collaboration with the Uffizi Galleries, it hosts works that recount Dante’s iconography starting from the nineteenth century, a time when the Supreme Poet and his works had an extraordinary success also by virtue of the history of Italy. Then there is a room that houses the collections of the Classense Library, which has always taken care of the conservation and management of the legacy of Dante’s material and which is a space in which for the first time collections of precious books can be admired up close until now mainly intended for scholars. A space dedicated to the world of design in collaboration with Adi design Museum – Compasso d’Oro in Milan: a selection of objects from the historical collections of the Compasso d’Oro Award that will develop a reading of Dante’s themes in a contemporary key (for info on visits and other Dante’s places vivadante.it).

THE EXHIBITION ON DANTE POP
Meanwhile, al Mar-Ravenna City Art Museum, from 25 September (until 9 January) there is an exhibition that tells the popular epic of Dante Alighieri and his poem: «Dante. The eyes and the mind. A POP Epic “. Curated by Giuseppe Antonelli, professor of Italian Linguistics at the University of Pavia and signature of Corriere della Sera, encloses words, sounds and images, from cinema to songs, from advertising to comics starring Dante, fourteenth-century poet and pop icon because with his verses, his poetry, his figure, it got everywhere.

We will (re) see it as a symbol of Italian and European cultural identity, whose effigy passes from lire to euro, as a commercial brand and in an advertising key (like the famous Olivetti affiche which is the image of the exhibition), and then in movies, books or video games with many interactive audio and video contributions, also accompanied by the voices of great interpreters who have ventured into the lectura Dantis.

The exhibition is divided into several sections – The memory of Dante, Dante and the image, Dante and advertising, The divine parody, Dante the character, Dante and Beatrice – in a decidedly eclectic exhibition path in which they intertwine wonderfully – with the curatorship of Giorgia Salerno, rresponsible for the cultural coordination and conservator of the MAR – contemporary works by the likes of Edoardo Tresoldi, Letizia Battaglia, Kiki Smith or – among others – Ra di Martino which recount Dante’s themes of souls, female figures, dreams, travel and light. For a taste of the wonders that await us here you can take a virtual tour (on www.mar.ra.it the info to book a visit to the exhibition). In the gallery above some images

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