Collettive action, Museo Madre / Nile Monument, Napoli 2026
Performance realized in the frame of the World River Day and the European Heritage Days 2026.
This latest chapter of the multi-year research project is curated by Nicola Ciancio for Ex-Voto | radical public culture, and is produced in collaboration with/thanks to Museo Madre and Marta Ferrara, Head of Educational Services at the Madre, Centro Itard, If Contemporary Flowers, Cosa del Futuro, CoolCity, Filtro5Lab, L’arsenale di Napoli, LaSantissima Community Hub, Scalzabanda. This action is part of Atlante delle Rive 2026, based on an idea by Marco Paolini for La Fabbrica del Mondo, produced by Jolefilm www.atlantedellerive.org
Ex-voto team: Fabiola Cangiano, Fabrizio Pollio, Giovanna Crisafulli.
Performers and contributors: Marco Izzolino, Alessandro Armento, Viviana Marchiò, Francesca Marconi, Maria Cristina Comite, Paola Mautone, Lorenzo Xiques, Dario Biancullo, Isabel Albertini, Mariano Cigliano, Luciana Soravia, Raffaele Bussetti, Francesca Blandino, Angelo Nuzzolo e Zoe, Massimo Cordovani e Marco, Daniela Frola e Sofia, Giulia Pennarola, Jupesse, Cris Costa. Photographers: Maria Nasti, Amedeo Benestante, Claudio Frontone, Annalisa Giardino Music: Roberto Fiorentini Musicians: Scalzabanda, Scalzapercussioni, Francesco Manna, Giacomo Pedicini, Antonella Liccardo
Godmothers of: ceramics works Giuliana Sandulli-Flowers Priscilla Ruggero If Contemporary Flowers jewellery Bobò, Francesca Capasso vector drawings Alberto Bottillo
metalwork Enpa Studio; textile tools Cosa del Futuro, Storytellers L’Arsenale di Napoli, coccodrile makers 4diMaggio kids and teachers.
Since 2019, this research has been made possible thanks to the collaboration and support of: ANM, Charlois Foundation (State of the City residency and CBK’Rotterdam), Naples City Council / Maggio dei Monumenti 2024, LET San Vincenzo, Ensemble Le Scalze, Ladoc Videoproduzioni, Gian Battista Vico High School, the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, Nctm e l’arte, the Campania Region, SLARG Research Antwerp, the Neapolitan Society of Local History (SNSP), and Visualcontainer.
Many thanks for sharing their situated knowledge : Susanna Ravelli, Francesca Amirante, Nino Masucci, Gabi Scardi, Pietro Gaglianò, Rita de Maria, Lidia Marinaro, Salvatore Mele, Alessandra Arnò, Vincenzo Falcione, Kathryn Weir, Risk Hazekamp, Maria Gaia Redavid, Yasmine Rihahi, Daniela Allocca, Nicola Capone, Maria Corbi, Hassan Kalid, Rosa Maietta, Paola Milone, Lorenzo Passi, Chiara Pirozzi, Maria Diletta Pubblico, Serena Ricci, Gabriella Russo, Matteo Seguso, Petra Van Brabandt, Kamiel Verschuren.
Breastfeeding served as the point of connection – both physical and social – between me and the Body of Naples: a position that lays bare the fragilities and constructs surrounding the concept of the human as the direct opposite of the label ‘animal’. I allowed myself to be guided by this perspective to begin questioning some of the many ‘Bodies of Naples’ and to foster conversations and narratives about bodies that lack representation – whether political and/or aesthetic – in the public sphere. From this emerged infant mermaids, goddesses and water bodies, non-human animals, non-adult humans, adults with prosthetics, and plants nestled within the folds of marble.
The action Atlas dei Corpi brings together the outcomes of practice-based artistic research in a performance involving those who have contributed to and taken part in the process since 2019.
The event begins with an installation and gathering in the courtyard of the Madre Museum and flows through the streets of Naples to the Corpo di Napoli Monument (Nile River). There, various offerings provide sensitive interpretations of the Statue of the Nile before proceeding to the Giardino dei Capezzoli—the artist’s garden and the project’s most recent chapter.
