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February 14, 2021 By

Lorenzo Amato on the surrealist Japanese artist Fukuzawa Ichiro (1898-1992) and Dante

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fukuzawa’s work was recently shown in Laugh Off This Hopeless World: Fukuzawa Ichiro (The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, March 12 – May 26 2019, a cura di Shōgo Ōtani, Ryō Furutate, Reiko Nakamura).

See Lorenzo Amato’s article, “Fra Dante Alighieri e l’Ōjōyōshū di Genshin: la società come Inferno nell’opera di Fukuzawa Ichirō, pittore umanista e misantropo” in Insula Europa, February 2021.

Categories: Visual Art & Architecture
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November 5, 2020 By

Gojira, “Inferno” (2003/2020)

“Gojira may have put the brakes on the new full-length album that was rumored for release this year, but that doesn’t mean 2020 will be completely devoid of new music from the French foursome: the band has posted a new live performance video, shot at the Duplantier brothers-owned Silver Cord Studio in New York City, of a previously unreleased song called ‘Inferno,’ originally written in 2003.

“The song was inspired by the 1925 film Maciste All’inferno, which also happens to be the name of a live recording Gojira made in 2003 while playing along to that very movie. Wikipedia tells us that the album was recorded live while a projection of the film was running at the Rock School Barbey in Bordeaux, France, on May 29, 2003. That recording, which was never officially released, ran for 50 minutes and consisted of 15 individual tracks, while the selection Gojira have released today is just under four minutes — maybe it’s one of those 15.” [. . .]   –Vince Neilstein, “Gojira Post Previously Unreleased Song, ‘Inferno’,” MetalSucks (October 30, 2020)

Watch the video on YouTube.

Contributed by Pete Maiers

Categories: Music
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March 11, 2020 By

Bianca Garavelli, Le Terzine Perdute di Dante (2015)

Bianca Garavelli’s Le terzine perdute di Dante is a historical thriller that follows the affairs of the poet himself, in exile in Paris, and a contemporary scholar who appears to have discovered the poet’s autograph in a manuscript in Milan. The novel was published by BUR Rizzoli in 2015.

“Parigi, 1309. Dante, in esilio, stanco e spaventato, vive nel terrore di essere perseguitato dai suoi numerosi nemici. Una delle sue poche consolazioni è la compagnia di una donna misteriosa, Marguerite Porete, una mistica accusata di eresia della quale Dante diventa il miglior allievo, e che lo conduce nel centro di una guerra spietata fra due ordini che agiscono nell’ombra. In gioco c’è un pericoloso segreto, una profezia di cui l’Alighieri è il depositario prescelto. Ed è il filologo medievale Riccardo Donati a mettersi sulle tracce di quel mistero centinaia di anni dopo, nella Milano dei giorni nostri: mentre esamina un antico manoscritto si imbatte in quella che ha tutta l’aria di essere la firma autografa di Dante. Sarà l’inizio di una vorticosa e inattesa avventura che stravolgerà per sempre la vita di Riccardo, e non solo. Un romanzo sospeso tra passato e presente, tra storia, letteratura e azione, per un thriller storico che si trasforma in una caccia all’uomo frenetica e appassionante.”  —BUR

See more at Bianca Garavelli’s website here.

Categories: Written Word
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August 16, 2019 By

Dante in poster for HBO’s series, “Succession” (2019)

Image on wall is a painting entitled “Dante and Virgil” (1850) by William-Adolphe Bouguereau.  It appears to be the falsifiers of Inf. 30, Capocchio and Gianni Schicchi, in combat.

Contributed by Kristina Olson 

The original painting, currently held in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, France, below.

Categories: Performing Arts, Visual Art & Architecture
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February 10, 2019 By

Guy Denning’s Oil Painting Series on the Commedia

Guy Denning is an artist based out of Finistere, France since 2007. Beginning in 2011, he created a three part series of oil paintings based on Dante’s Divine Comedy. The image above is a painting called “ch’io ‘l vidi uomo di sangue e di crucci” from his first series, ‘Inferno‘ (2011).

“In 2011 he presented ‘Inferno’, the first part of his three-part series of oil paintings on Dante’s Commedia in Bologna; this was his first exhibition in Italy and the complete exhibition sold out.
In 2011, he presented the second part of the series in New York City for the exhibition ‘Purgatorio’. Originally drawing inspiration from Dante’s writings, his intention was not to recreate the poem in a visual or literal sense, but instead let the ‘Purgatorio’ series act as a framework for his own personal interpretation of the world following 9/11. As with the writing of Shakespeare, Denning finds a perpetual relevance in Dante’s work where the specifics of name, situation and place are easily adapted to the modern world; as if time moves on but the problems of humanity remain essentially the same. The events of September 11th and the emotional toll it took on the US identity was a critical element to this body of work. Poignantly enough, this exhibition was held in a ‘pop-up’ location just blocks from Ground Zero and on the 10th Anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.” [. . .]    —Widewalls Magazine, 2017

On exhibition set- “Inferno”

“This was the first part of my paintings based on Dante’s Divine Comedy. Inferno was exhibited at my first solo exhibition in Italy at MAGI’900 Museo, Bologna.”     –Guy Denning, on his site, January 19, 2017

On exhibition set- “Purgatorio”

“This was the second part of my paintings based on Dante’s Divine Comedy. Purgatorio was exhibited in Manhattan at a pop-up gallery space by Brooklynite Gallery on the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.”    –Guy Denning, on his site, January 30, 2017.

The image above to the right is a painting called “the cardinal virtue of media temperance” from the ‘Purgatorio‘ exhibition.

On exhibition set- “Paradiso”

“This was the third part of my paintings based on Dante’s Divine Comedy. Paradiso was exhibited at Signal Gallery in London.”    –Guy Denning, on his site, January 27, 2017.

The image below is a painting called “Looking for Beatrice” from the ‘Paradiso‘ exhibiton.

To view Denning’s full list of exhibitions, check out his website here

Categories: Image Mosaic, Visual Art & Architecture
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November 3, 2018 By

Yves Guérin’s Divine comédie Sculptures

Yves-Guerin-Divine-Comedie-Montpeyroux“L’Enfer, le Purgatoire, le Paradis… Yves Guérin s’est inspiré de l’œuvre de Dante pour créer trois sculptures monumentales, exposées à Montpeyroux. […]

“Pour cela, il a choisi, depuis plusieurs années, de façonner des rails de chemin de fer. «Il faut lui faire cracher quelque chose à la matière.» Et lui faire raconter une histoire. En l’occurrence, celle de la Divine comédie, de Dante. «Un texte qui m’a toujours impressionné et que je réinterprète.»

“L’Enfer a ainsi pris place dans la carrière du village, le Purgatoire sur le promontoire et le Paradis, création haute de 11 mètres, sur l’esplanade. «J’ai vraiment souhaité exploiter ces trois lieux.» Des espaces qui se complètent à merveille. Il suffit d’observer, au pied de la carrière, la sculpture du Purgatoire qui se dresse dans la perspective de l’Enfer. Tout un symbole. «J’ai toujours eu des questionnements sur le devenir de l’humanité, ce qu’il reste des choses», confie l’artiste.” — Marion Chavot, “Le sculpteur expose trois de ses œuvres jusqu’à la fin de l’année,” La Montagne, June 24, 2016

Contributed by Giuseppe Sangirardi (Université de Lorraine)

Categories: Visual Art & Architecture
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July 24, 2018 By

Inferno Magazine

INFERNO: arts, scènes, attitudes is a bilingual (French-English) magazine dedicated to contemporary art, published quarterly and available both in print and online. The magazine’s offices are located in Avignon, France.

“INFERNO est depuis 2013 la revue européenne référence des pratiques contemporaines: Art, Performance, Danse, Théâtre, Littératures… Tout ce qui compte dans la création contemporaine la plus exigeante et novatrice n’échappe pas à INFERNO, classée comme l’une des 10 revues les plus influentes d’Europe.” —INFERNO la revue

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Categories: Visual Art & Architecture, Written Word
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April 28, 2018 By

The Dante Trap by Arnaud Delalande (2011)

“Murder follows murder, each more gruesome than the last, and as Viravolta begins to draw the connections between these deaths, and the torments reserved for sinners in each of Dante’s circles of hell, he finds himself embroiled in a terrible game of cat and mouse. As the streets of Venice fill with masked Carnival-goers, and as Anna and Viravolta are once again thrown together, he is drawn further into the inferno, to the heart of a secret sect and a plot to bring about the downfall of the city.” —Orion Books

Contributed by Alessandra Mazzocchi (Florida State University ’19)

Categories: Written Word
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January 18, 2017 By

“Encore Dante” (2016 – ), A modern day adaptation of Dante’s Inferno

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“In her youth, the author labored as an au pair for a Parisian family. Like most life-altering experiences, the work was brief but intense. Now, after decades of therapy, the author descends again to the depths of hell to describe for readers what awaits there.”

Anticipated schedule for posting chapters of Encore Dante:

  • Prologue: Posted
  • Chapter 1: Week of February 6, 2017
  • Chapter 2: Week of February 20, 2017
  • Chapter 3: Week of March 6, 2017
  • Chapter 4: Week of March 20, 2017
  • Chapter 5: Week of April 3, 2017
  • Chapter 6: Week of April 17, 2017
  • Chapter 7: Week of May 1, 2017
  • Chapter 8: Week of May 15, 2017
  • Chapter 9: Week of May 29, 2017
  • Chapter 10: Week of June 12, 2017
  • Epilogue: Week of June 26, 2017
Categories: Written Word
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July 9, 2014 By

Le Cabaret de L’Enfer: Turn-of-the-Century Paris Nightclub Modeled After Hell

Cabaret-L'Enfer-Paris-Theme-Bars“As a general rule, theme bars are embarrassing affairs. You have your corny waitstaff, your overly literal decor and a sense of forced performance that’s… annoying. Once in a blue moon though, there has been a theme bar so fucking cool you would sell your soul to get in. Tragically, you would have to strike some kind of deal with the devil to go to Le Cabaret de L’Enfer, since the Paris red light district nightclub opened around the turn of the last century and closed sometime during the middle of it. Very little information exists on L’Enfer, but the detail in the decor is absolutely gorgeous—almost Boschian detail of twisting human, animal and skeletal forms—couldn’t you just die?”    –Posted by Amber Frost on Dangerous Minds

Cabaret-L'Enfer-Paris-Theme-Bars-Interior

Categories: Dining & Leisure
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