Marina Cavadini / Beneath Her (Milan)
Beneath Her (2021) by artist Marina Cavadini
Beneath Her is inspired by the Hansberry story’s original character of Beneatha Younger. Beneatha is a young African American woman who freely expresses her opinions and who rejects a traditional stereotype for female roles within a family and home. Indeed, it is not through a marriage that Beneatha intends to achieve independence—but instead through her education in medicine.
Roles and identities such as those of Beneatha are missing on Italian screens, especially for Afro-Italian talents. This absence denotes an inadequate representation in the national artistic scene.
“Wariboko” is the name of a scouting agency based in Milan and founded by the independent proprietor Charity Dago, with the aim of representing and promoting Afro-descendant Italian artists. The word Wariboko literally means “the one who opens a door.”
excerpt
This video project introduces Wariboko and reveals a bit of what lies behind its scenes.
Actor and music producer Derek Dabre is featured in this conversational interview, as a talent represented by Charity and Wariboko. The filmmaker herself is not be physically present in the narrative of the video’s story.
BIO: Marina Cavadini (Milan) is a research-based artist primarily working with performance, sculpture, and video. Guided by queer and feminist theory and decolonial thinking, she works to foster connections and to undo hierarchies. Marina often stages tableau vivants and she directs rhizomatic gestures in which the body is holding, wearing, and it is in the process of becoming. Her practice combines organic and inanimate matter involving processes of decadence, mimicry, and of symbiosis. With a surrealistic and erotic tone, their work invites to experience the post-natural realm with vulnerability and intimacy.
Marina holds a BFA from Brera (Milan), a MA in Curatorial Studies from NABA (Milan), and a MFA in Sculpture from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is a recipient of the Eldon Danhausen Fellowship for Sculpture (2017). In 2019 her project “Les Doigts en Fleur” was supported by Fondazione Piemonte dal Vivo. Marina’s work has been shown in Chicago at the Sullivan Galleries, Hyde Park Center, the Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection, and the Learning Machine. Marina has showed at HotHouse Series, Botanical Garden of Turin, Parco Arte Vivente, Turin; La Triennale di Milano, Residenza La Fornace; and AltaRoma Roma Fashion Week. Her residencies include: Nida Art Colony, Lithuania 2020, and ACRE, US 2022. Marina is a member of the ALTALENA collective with whom she is taking part in the Mediterranea 19 Young Artists Biennale.
For more information about Wariboko, Charity Dago, and Derek please visit the following links:
https://www.vogue.it/en/article/interview-charity-dago-inclusion-black-history-wariboko
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