What’s in a name?

“All the world’s a stage,” begins the famous Shakespearean speech in As You Like It. If people are the players, then Italian artist Marinella Senatore is a builder of theaters. In a multidisciplinary practice that spans performance and music with a strong emphasis on public participation, she sets the scene with illuminated backdrops and neon sculptures. Often incorporating empowering phrases like “I want a name like fire, like revolution,” activist slogans—”The time for equality is now”—or quotes such as poet Warsan Shire‘s “Give your daughters difficult names,” Senatore’s sculptures transform public spaces and literally illuminate opportunities for social change, setting the scene for both choreographed and quotidian interactions.

Senatore’s exhibition We Rise By Lifting Others runs concurrently at Museum der Moderne Salzburg through October 8, 2023 and Museum Villa Stuck through September 10. Find more of work on the artist’s website, and follow Mazzoleni Gallery’s Instagram for updates.

All images © Marinella Senatore.

Header image: Bodies in Alliance, 2021. Installation at Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2022. Photo by Aurélien Mole, courtesy of the artist, Palais de Tokyo, and Mazzoleni, London and Torino

Side-by-side images: Details of Assembly, 2018. Installation on the High Line, New York, part of ‘Agora.’ Photos by Timothy Schenck