idDante: Ravenna Launches Year-Long Contemporary Art Project Honoring Dante Alighieri

Five years ahead of the 700th anniversary of Dante Alighieri's death, Bonobolabo launches idDante in Ravenna, a year-long project curated by Maria Vittoria Baravelli that will culminate in 2021. The poet spent his final years in Ravenna, composing the last cantos of Paradiso before dying on the night of September 13–14, 1321. The historic center features the Dante Zone, including his tomb built by architect Camillo Morigia in 1780 for Cardinal Luigi Valente Gonzaga near the Basilica of San Francesco, the Dante Museum established in 1921 for the 600th anniversary, and the Alfredo Oriani Library of Contemporary History, whose corridor was designed to face the tomb. Since 2014, artist No Curves has a modern tape-art portrait of Dante donated to the city via the Subsidenze street art festival. The first exhibition, "Il Volto di Dante, per una traduzione contemporanea," runs September 18 to October 23, featuring 33 artists plus one, mirroring the Divine Comedy's metric structure. Media include graphics, comics, mosaic, Technogel, bread, and tape art. During the show, Cracking Art installs giant swallows in the library garden, selling small swallow sculptures to fund digitization of early 20th-century Dante texts. Brazilian street artist Kobra, fresh from his Rio 2016 Olympics mural "Todos somos um," creates a mural near Dante's tomb. Later, street artists Max Petrone and Pixel Pancho will produce additional Dante murals.