15-17
05 2026
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06/03/2026
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29/04/2026
Exhibitions
Alessandra Mazzari

Feroce

Text by Flavia Prestininzi
CANTADORA is thrilled to present Feroce, the first solo exhibition by Alessandra Mazzari. A young painter studying at the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence, Alessandra Mazzari (Parma, 2003) presents for CANTADORA a new series of works rooted in her personal biography and in the subtle dynamics of the intimate relationships that shape her life. The canvases, accompanied by a short story by artist and writer Davide La Montagna titled Il Dio Dei Secondi and played during the opening, depict domestic and familial settings in which interactions between the figures seem suspended in time and space.
The faces, deliberately withdrawn from recognition, remain opaque and anonymous; yet postures, gestures, and the closeness between figures clearly reveal emotional bonds and complex relational dynamics, allowing the silent tension inhabiting the shared space to emerge. From this affective dimension—intimate, layered, and marked by ambivalence—Alessandra’s work unfolds on jute and canvas through the lens of a key concept: “thirdness,” defined by author and psychoanalyst Jessica Benjamin (2017) as central to her theory of recognition.
In Alessandra’s paintings, recognition first takes shape within the domestic sphere, in the subtle interplay between figures bound by family ties. The recurring presence of domesticated dogs introduces a symbolic shift, pointing toward otherness and marginality. These figures are not mere narrative details but active devices that disrupt the closure of the pair, fracturing the logic of a strictly dual relationship.
“The Third”—whether masculine or feminine—emerges as what both exceeds and structures the relationship, making visible the contours that define and sustain it. Within this space, no longer confined but acknowledged, intersubjective dynamics open up to a complexity that surpasses binary polarity, allowing a shared space to emerge where recognition can truly take place.