Javier Peres Selects Marinella Senatore

Marinella Senatore is the second of Javier Peres' selections for Dazed. Earlier this month he opened her latest exhibition at Peres Projects during Berlin Art Week. As a filmmaker and artist, she works with video, photography, sound and installation and involves whole communities in her large-scale visions. To date she has enlisted and enlivened a community of retired miners in Sicily, 16,000 citizens of Derby in the UK and 300 Lower East Side resident in New York to name but a few, and is currently in post-production for her new trilogy, 'ROSAS'. 

The participants are involved in writing the Libretto, but also in making the final film and directing it, using cameras and lights. The outcome is almost not an endpoint but one part of a much more bigger picture, a social and political dynamic that has been adopted by the community for a relevant time

Dazed Digital: Javier Peres used the term 'the new brutal' for one of his curated issues in Dazed, describing it as "art that is honest, from the guts, sometimes severe but always inspiring. Beautiful even" - Is it important to make work from the heart, gut and groin?
Marinella Sanitore: In my opinion is not just important, it's NECESSARY, especially in the social times we are living. I couldn’t imagine, at least for myself, another way.

DD: What are you working on at the moment?
Marinella Sanitore: ROSAS: a trilogy of operas specifically conceived for the screen, a long term project which has been touring to different international cities in 2012 involving more than 18,400 people. The participants are involved in writing the Libretto, but also in making the final film and directing it, using cameras and lights. They share time and skills... the outcome is almost not an endpoint but one part of a much more bigger picture, a social and political dynamic that has been adopted by the community for a relevant time. The permanent installations (set) will be converted into low-cost film-studio. For for the duration of the exhibition groups of actors, photographers, filmmakers and amateurs could use the space (stage, make up station, post-production technology, light and sound equipment) for free.

DD: How have you come to make the work that you make?
Marinella Sanitore: I was a violinist, and I studied art and attended the National Film School in Rome, working with Giuseppe Rotunno (well recognized director of photography of the Fellini, Visconti, Fosse, Gillian movies) who gave me a method (the old school of the cinema), the capacity to work with thousands of people and keep the responsibility for all of them, he gave me the light... and the structure of a set or and orchestra. I found within the framework of contemporary art an environment where I can use structures, contents and methodology in a free way.

DD: What remains consistent throughout your process?
Marinella Sanitore: The public is involved as co-writer, actor, set designer, camera operator, director… sharing time, experiences and skills, acquiring new knowledge in an atmosphere of ongoing workshop, in contact with the contents they find in their environment and according to the level of involvement and their backgrounds. 

DD: What gets you hook line and sinker every time?
Marinella Sanitore: The energy I find in something, mostly aggregation of people, groups, stories; connecting personal events with collective processes, fact and fiction... fostering the construction of an archive of shared narratives that creates a sense of community. 

DD: Would you say you're brave?
Marinella Sanitore: I take risks, of course. I proceed according to my instinct and my needs.

DD: Best artist of all time?
Marinella Sanitore: I would say Leonardo Da Vinci, but I have a special passion for Tintoretto.

Read our interview with Brent Wadden, Javier Peres' first Selects, HERE