Margherita Manzelli's Robot Companion Debuts at Centro Pecci

The Centro Pecci in Prato presents 'Le signorine,' a major solo exhibition of Margherita Manzelli (born 1968 in Ravenna, based in Milan), curated by director Stefano Collicelli Cagol. The show spans her career from the 1990s to today, featuring paintings that blend figuration and abstraction, Renaissance light techniques, and references to Constantin Brâncuși's Sleeping Muse, the floor patterns of Prato Cathedral, and 1970s wallpaper. Manzelli desexualizes her female subjects, depicting them with emaciated bodies and hallucinatory gazes, often accompanied by the poisonous datura flower. The exhibition also revisits her performance art, exemplified by tools from 'La vita felice' (1996). A robot named Mercedes, inspired by the Count of Monte Cristo's beloved and built with Federico Espositi of Politecnico di Milano's social robotics department, recites Manzelli's poems throughout the five-month run. Its face is based on a sphinx carved by Antonio Rossellino and Mino da Fiesole for Prato Cathedral's pulpit.