Guendalina Salini's Stabat Mater Honors Farmworkers at Ex Elettrofonica

Guendalina Salini's Stabat Mater, a performance combining art and music, debuted at Ex Elettrofonica in Rome, dedicated to farmworkers who died from inhumane labor conditions. The work features twelve black-painted cardboard panels with torn surfaces, each depicting a face, created using the strappo technique. These portraits correspond to the twelve victims, linked to Pergolesi's Stabat Mater performed by a quartet (Lorenzo Bucci, Giulia Anita Bari, Javier Salnisky, Giuseppe Civiletti) with vocalist Elsa Lila. A stop-motion projection showed the tearing process forming each face. Salini, born in Rome in 1972, has collaborated with violinist Giulia Anita Bari since 2017 through their association La Frangia. Their community work began with Matera 2019 near Borgo Taccone, an abandoned agricultural village, aiming to expose the conditions of seasonal farmworkers. Salini described the camps as "real ghettos" after visiting with Bari, who worked for Medici per i Diritti Umani. Curator and critic Stella Santacatterina, during a dialogue on November 17, praised the performance as a "great message" of liberation from academic constraints and anesthesia, emphasizing art as a "free zone" that can save us from globalization's flattening.