Rosa in mano: Detainee Voices Accompany Milan Exhibition

Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro in Milan presents "Rosa in mano," a group exhibition featuring Nevine Mahmoud, Margherita Raso, and Derek MF Di Fabio, running from 2021. The show explores presence and absence through sensual, erotic assemblages that reimagine the body. Raso contributes an embroidered fabric over three meters wide that alters spatial perception, while Mahmoud displays a marble tongue and alabaster and glass breasts that animate the walls. Derek MF Di Fabio created an unconventional audio guide titled "Cuscini," based on dialogues with inmates from Casa di Reclusione di Vigevano. After viewing preview images, the detainees shared ideas and thoughts that were set to music and recorded by Italian and international readers, forming six tracks meant to be heard via headphones within the foundation. The audio guide functions as an independent artwork, inviting listeners to experience freedom beyond confinement. Di Fabio's workshop at the prison, initiated in February 2020, was cut short by the pandemic and transformed into an epistolary exchange of letters and emails exploring participants' intimate spheres, overcoming bureaucratic and personal barriers.