Margherita Manzelli. Fiori-Flowers

The paintings and drawings are hers, the words are from the writers she loves, the photos have been collected over the years. The whole, seemingly disjointed, but in fact fused into a painstakingly ordered and harmonious chaos, reveals the world of Margherita Manzelli (Ravenna 1968), a self-effacing and incisive artist. Next to topical and politically tinged newspaper photos, alternating with sentences from Peter Handke, Marco Lodoli, Ida Magli, Ian McEwan, Alda Merini, Oliver Sacks and Teresa di Lisieux (to name but a few), and side by side with cartoons or sketches by renowned draftsmen such as Osvaldo Cavandoli, Margherita Manzell's girls-thin, prematurely aged and ethereal-stare at us, demanding our attention. Vaguely enigmatic and apparently helpless, they never lower their gaze, but instead await an answer. This anarchic yet cohesive book, with its subtle and perceptive trains of thought, tells the story of one of the most important artists on the contemporary art scene.