The Consulate General of Italy in Kolkata hosted a unique exhibition at Gallery Sanskriti in Alipore that celebrated the cultural heritage of India and Italy. With the exhibition ‘In metamorphosis, Dante translated into Kashmir embroidery’ by celebrated Italian artist Marta Roberti, Dante Alighieri’s most famous work The Divine Comedy was reimagined in a rich tapestry of Kashmiri craftsmanship. Artist Marta Roberti, who incorporated mythological creatures in the tapestries, tells us, “Through these tapestries I was investigating a process of metamorphosis in which human nature penetrates animal nature. I tried to represent, using my female body and face, the processes of metamorphosis between human and animal, tracing in the Divine Comedy, some figures and passages that expressed a condition of lack of border between human and animal. In particular, I referred to those mythological creatures such as the harpy, the minotaur, the centaur, Lucifer, which represent a process of mixing between human and animal.” Continuing she adds, “The philosophical vision underlying these designs is life as a process of intra- specific metamorphosis: each species as the meta-morphosis of the previous one. Each creature, carrying within itself all the others, is imagined as a kind of travelling zoo.” The exhibits that has been featured in Jaipur and Delhi before coming to Kolkata will return to Italy.
The exhibits that has been featured in Jaipur and Delhi before coming to Kolkata will return to Italy.
Gianluca Rubagotti, consul general of Italy in Kolkata poses in front of one of the exhibits. He says, “With the exhibition by Marta Roberti at Sanskriti Gallery we are glad to continue the journey of exploration of how the Indian and Italian culture can entertain dialogues. In this case, the father of the Italian language, Dante Alighieri, through his most famous work, the Divine Comedy, becomes the starting point of a reinterpretation using Indian craftsmanship, like tapestry and embroidery. I am also happy to have a chance to bid farewell to Andrea Baldi, the director of the Italian cultural centre in Delhi, knowing his love for Kolkata and its people.”
Talking about curating the event, Andrea Badli, director Italian Cultural Centre, New Delhi who bid India adieu tells us, “At the end of 2020 I had to prepare the events schedule for the following year with an important occasion in the forefront, the commemoration of the seven hundredth anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri, the most important figure of Italian literature and the father of the Italian language. I was very fond of the works of Marta Roberti and so I contacted her to see if she would be interested in creating some artworks for an exhibition. Marta offered to design some tapestries in Kashmir, woven using chain stitch, based on some of her drawings.”