Andrea Cavallari about the destiny of Alda Merini

Andrea Cavallari is one of those people on the Florentine art scene who is always around even when he is not. His working space is divided between Tokyo, London and Florence and spans from musical compositions into installation and performance art.

Furthermore he is the artistic director of the festival “Firenze Suona Contemporanea” in which he stages other cutting edge artists in a city shaped by the medieval and renaissance heritage.

His own art is infused with intelligence, anarchy and humor.

https://www.andreacavallari.co.uk

I previously wrote an article on his staged piece “La pazza della porta accanto” about the great italian poet Alda Merini, who spent more than 10 years in a mental hospital interchanging between writing poetry and being exposed to electrical chocks.

https://karingrand.com/2017/09/07/alda-merini-locked-up-in-poetry/

In the below follow-up-video-interview we revisit her unforgettable life story.

This is a translation of the first poem recited in italian by Andrea Cavallari:

Madness

is one of the most sacred things existing on earth

It’s an itinerary of purifying pain

A suffering

Like the quintessential of logic

Madness has to exist on its own

Because the mad ones want it to

Madness is an enormous ressource

extremely fertile

But only a poet can manage it