Simona Marchini autobiography 'Corpo estraneo' published by Baldini+Castoldi

Simona Marchini (Rome, 1941) has published her autobiography 'Corpo estraneo. La mia vita tra arte, musica e teatro' with Baldini+Castoldi (Milan, 2021). The title reflects her self-described estrangement from the self-congratulatory art world. Marchini grew up immersed in art, culture, opera, and antifascism; her father was a partisan and communist, her mother also active in the Resistance. In 1959, her father Alvaro Marchini opened Galleria La Nuova Pesa in Rome, which became a major exhibition space and cultural forum. After his death, Simona took over the gallery, presenting countless prestigious shows. A recent retrospective of the gallery's activity was held at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome and later moved to CIAC in Foligno. Marchini particularly recalls Jannis Kounellis as one of her favorite artists. Beyond the gallery, she worked as a comic actress, opera director, curator of the Todi Festival, UNICEF supporter, and youth education advocate. She writes candidly about her personal life: the grief over her father's death, two marriages (the second to Ciccio Cordova), her love for opera director Pierluigi Samaritani, and friendships with Bernardo Bertolucci, Renzo Arbore, Ettore Scola, and Gigi Proietti. Her worldview is rooted in the classical ideal of kalòs kai agathòs—the correspondence of beauty, goodness, and justice.