A Talk with Alessandra Calò and Marilena Renda

In the second event of "Women with a camera (and a notebook, a pen, a laptop...)", Alessandra Calò and Marilena Renda talk about their verbal-visual collaboration in Ctonio, a photo-text published in 2024 by Studiofaganel. In this work, which focuses on the island of Favignana, photography and words speak to each other while exploring the generative space of the chthonic world and its stories.

Alessandra Calò is an artist who creates images, situations and photographs to explore themes related to memory, identity and the relationship between man and nature. Her artistic research is based on the reinterpretation of archival materials, with which she does not intend to evoke nostalgia for the past, but rather to propose new visions of reality. Her works combine intimate research and contamination which, through various collaborations, lead to the creation of site-specific installations.

Marilena Renda was born in Erice in 1976 and lives in Bologna, where she teaches English and writes poetry. Her books include: Ruggine (dot.com press 2012 - finalist for the Delfini Prize 2009 and the Carducci Prize 2013), Arrenditi Dorothy (L'orma 2015), La sottrazione (Transeuropa 2015 - winner of the Bologna in Lettere Prize 2019), Fate morgane (L’Arcolaio 2020), Fuoco degli occhi (Aragno 2022 - finalist for the 2023 Fortini Prize and the 2023 Naples Prize), Cinema Persefone (Arcipelago Itaca 2024 - winner of the 2025 Strega Giovani Poetry Prize).