The Winter of Persephone

The exhibition The Winter of Persephone proposes an immersive route in which the ancient myth of the Demeter-Persephone couple is intertwined with the emergencies of the contemporaryoffering a strong and symbolic reflection on the current relationship between theman and the nature. The unpublished works of Gabriella Benedini dialogue with the themes of environmental destruction, resource exploitation, climate crisis e gender equalityPersephone, in the months in which she rules the underworld, becomes an emblem of the time of stasis, deprivation and complexity, while the return to Earth is represented as a fragile and precarious rebirth.

The artist reinterprets the classical myth by transforming it into a contemporary metaphorHades' violence against Persephone is symbolic of the ferocity with which man invades and damages the Earth, while Demeter's pain is emblematic of the anguish felt by wounded nature. The use of images and forms, often juxtaposing the delicate and the crude, allows the exhibition to operate as a mirror of the present: the roots of myth are transformed into a critical lens to address the urgent issues of desertification, toxic emissions, indiscriminate consumptionand the tension between male power and respect for the life cycle.

In the dialogue between classic and contemporary, The Winter of Persephone invites the visitor to rediscover our deep connection with the Earth and the ancestral cycles of existence, and to face the present with greater awareness.