THE SACRED PLACE
Aorta Social Art Gallery (Corso Italia 146) in Pisa, Italy, presents The Sacred Place, a solo exhibition by Chiara Giannini Mannarà, curated by Nadzeya Naurotskaya. This exhibition is conceived as an immersive and multisensory experience that intertwines traditional media, virtual reality, and digital mind-drawing, deeply exploring the dimensions of memory, myth, and ritual.
At the core of the artist’s research lies the concept of the sacred as an experiential space — a place of connection between the individual and the collective, where archaic narratives merge with the language of contemporary art. Through painting, textile art, multimedia assemblage, and digital experimentation, Giannini Mannarà constructs a fluid dialogue between the tangible and the virtual, articulating a visual poetics that transcends mere representation and transforms into experience. Visitors are invited into a sensory and symbolic immersion, where narrative dimensions intertwine with a profound emotional and contemplative impact.
The artist draws from an iconographic repertoire rich in cultural and personal stratifications, crafting a symbolic vocabulary expressed through diverse materials and techniques. Pigments, fabrics, threads, fleeces, paper, and canvas combine in evocative compositions, giving life to an imagery where archetypal elements—thread, vessel, serpent, fur, water, twins, skeleton, bucranium — are imbued with ritual and transformative significance. Themes of life, death, birth, motherhood, and metamorphosis emerge as recurring motifs, in a quest that interrogates the boundary between corporeality and transcendence.
A distinctive feature of the exhibition is the integration of immersive experiences through virtual reality and digital mind-drawing, amplifying the meditative and participatory scope of the project. These dimensions are not merely technological tools but true symbolic territories, where the viewer is invited to transcend the role of passive observer and become an active participant in a process of inner transformation. The artwork thus expands into a space of reflection and renewal, where memory and myth merge into a dimension suspended between vision and reality.
The Sacred Place explores the relationship between past and future, tradition and innovation, materiality and immateriality, redefining the role of contemporary art in constructing new sacred spaces—both individual and collective.
The exhibition will be open until April 9, 2025, every day from 12:00 PM to 8:00 PM.
