Marinella Senatore
Materia Comune
for Marca Corona
Marinella
Senatore
For over twenty years, Marinella Senatore (Cava de’Tirreni, 1977) has developed a multidisciplinary practice encompassing light installations, tapestries, collage, drawing and performance.
Grounded in participation, pedagogy and the building of shared knowledge, her research to date has engaged millions of people in collective processes across more than twenty-four countries. Landscapes, gestures, architectural fragments and text recur as elements of a constantly evolving iconography: a contemporary mythology through which visibility, agency, belonging and transformation are renegotiated.
Her large-scale light installations and sculptures in public spaces often draw upon the architectural language of Southern Italian luminarie (traditional light structures). She treats tradition not as a mere formal repertoire, but as an active device for connection, celebration and aggregation.. Ephemeral structures linked to festivals and collective participation are thus translated into contemporary sculptural forms capable of activating both the space and the communities passing through it. The artist investigates how communities represent themselves, how knowledge circulates through lived experience, and how forms of collective imagination emerge through action, presence and participation.
Her work has been presented in numerous international institutions, including Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Kunsthaus Zürich; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Museum der Moderne, Salzburg; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Museum Villa Stuck, Munich; Castello di Rivoli; MAXXI, Rome and L’Aquila; Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt; Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn; Estorick Collection, London; BOZAR, Brussels; Kunsthalle St. Gallen; and Queens Museum, New York.
She has completed commissions and public projects for the High Line, New York; Palazzo Strozzi, Florence; UCCA, Shanghai; Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice; Faena Forum, Miami; Southbank Centre, London; alongside numerous institutions across Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the United States. Senatore has participated in major international biennials, including the Venice Biennale, São Paulo Art Biennial, Lyon Biennale, Liverpool Biennial, Shenzhen Biennale, Athens Biennale, and Bangkok Art Biennale.
In 2026, she was named Artist of the Year by the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art (GNAMC) in Rome.
The Materia Comune
concept
The Materia Comune
concept
Materia Comune is Marinella Senatore’s first major ceramic artwork. The title refers on the one hand to the material with which the artist is engaging for the first time, and on the other to the shared heritage of words, experiences and relationships within the Marca Corona community.
The artwork originated from a workshop involving collective reading, writing and somatic movement designed for the company’s employees. Each participant was invited to bring a text that represented them: a quote, a song lyric, a book excerpt, a meaningful word or a phrase linked to their personal experience.
A collective portrait
in ceramic
Inspired by Senatore’s collages on paper, the artwork brings together the silhouettes of a number of participants, phrases chosen by the artist, and elements of the local landscape. The palette reflects the earthy tones and materials observed in the surrounding territory, while the engraved pattern on the background echoes the historic tiles preserved in the Marca Corona archives. Materia Comune thus becomes a collective portrait of the company, built through the voices and experiences of the people who bring its spaces to life every day.
A work built together
Materia Comune also stems from the contribution of the people who experience and bring the company to life every day. The experiences, words, and memories of the employees have fueled the creative process, becoming part of a collective work that also continues on the back with brand-new content.
Materia Comune and Marca Corona:
a dialogue between art and business
The main artwork, which also lends its name to the exhibition, is accompanied by a selection of pieces representative of Marinella Senatore’s practice. Collages, canvases, sculptures and light installations delve deeper into themes of participation, memory, belonging and the relationship between personal and collective dimensions.
The light installations Bodies in Alliance, Breathe, U Are Enough, and I Contain Multitudes, inspired by the traditional illuminations of Southern Italian folk festivals, transform the exhibition area into a symbolic town square.
Mariacristina Ferraioli -
Curator
Mariacristina Ferraioli is an art critic, curator and art editor. After graduating in Modern Literature with a specialisation in Art History, she moved to Paris to pursue further studies in literature, philosophy and art history at Université Sorbonne. She continued her academic journey by earning a Master’s degree in the Organisation and Communication of Visual Arts from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, followed by a PhD in Communication and Markets: Economics, Marketing, and Creativity from IULM University in Milan.
Winner of the Curatorial Residency awarded by the Dena Foundation for Contemporary Art at the Centre International d’Accueil et d’Échanges des Récollets in Paris, she collaborated with the Centre Pompidou on the exhibition Traces du Sacré, contributing a critical essay to the exhibition catalogue. She has coordinated the Master’s Department at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts and has served on the management team of Artribune magazine.
From 2018 to 2022, she was a member of the curatorial team for ArtLine Milano, the public art project promoted by the Municipality of Milan and developed within the CityLife park, helping accomplish one of Italy’s most significant permanent public art programmes. As an independent curator, she has conceived and organised exhibitions for both public and private institutions, including Exit Light, Omar Hassan’s solo exhibition at Milan Malpensa International Airport’s Porta di Milano.
Alongside her curatorial practice, she maintains an active role in writing and art criticism, contributing regularly to publications such as Vanity Fair Italia, Interni Annual, Posh, and Artuu.
Visit Materia Comune
at Galleria Marca Corona
The exhibition Materia Comune, curated by Mariacristina Ferraioli, will open on 9 October 2026 at the Marca Corona and Galleria Marca Corona venues in Sassuolo and will run until 4 December.
The project will continue in Bologna from 5 to 7 February 2027, to coincide with ART CITY and Arte Fiera, before returning to Sassuolo in the autumn of 2027 with an exhibition at the Palazzo Ducale – organised in collaboration with Gallerie Estensi.
