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| Installation view of We Rise by Lifting Others by Marinella Senatore for The Human Safety Net, featuring large textile banners suspended in a gallery space |
VENICE - In the heart of Venice, a powerful new exhibition transforms art into a shared human experience. With We Rise by Lifting Others, Marinella Senatore invites visitors into a living tapestry of voices shaped by real stories of resilience and inclusion. Presented at The Home of The Human Safety Net, the project merges light, textiles and collective memory. Timed with the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, it offers an experience where vulnerability becomes strength. This is not just an exhibition—it is a call to connect, reflect and participate.
The opening of the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia
We Rise by Lifting Others. A new installation by Marinella Senatore at The Home of The Human Safety Net in Venice. From 7 May 2026 to 22 March 2027. The Home of The Human Safety Net, Piazza San Marco 105, Venice. To coincide with the opening of the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, The Human Safety Net presents We Rise by Lifting Others, a site-specific exhibition project by Marinella Senatore, conceived for The Home of The Human Safety Net, a hub for culture and social inclusion on the third floor of the Procuratie in St Mark's Square. Open to the public from 7 May 2026 to 22 March 2027, We Rise by Lifting Others stems from the convergence of The Human Safety Net's social mission and Marinella Senatore's participatory artistic practice, giving shape to an experience that focuses on inclusion, resilience and the potential to transform vulnerability into a shared resource.
A World of Potential
Marinella Senatore – a multidisciplinary artist whose research has always intertwined collective practice, empowerment and community building – developed the project through a participatory process that placed families at risk of social exclusion at the center, accompanied by The Human Safety Net and its partner NGOs operating in Warsaw, Mestre and Palermo. We Rise by Lifting Others stands in natural dialogue with A World of Potential, the permanent interactive exhibition curated by Orna Cohen and designed by Studio Migliore+Servetto. Whilst A World of Potential guides visitors in discovering their own strengths through sixteen multimedia installations, We Rise by Lifting Others represents an artistic and human interpretation of this: a further level of experience in which potential is not described in abstract terms, but takes concrete form through shared stories, words and imagery Conceived as a choral work,
Emma Ursich, CEO of The Human Safety Net
We Rise by Lifting Others comprises a monumental light installation and a series of six tapestries, both developed from words, images, wishes and reflections that emerged during an extensive series of workshops involving the families. “This new chapter once again confirms the extraordinary transformative power of art as a tool for participation, inclusion and awareness. Our collaboration with Marinella Senatore has enabled us to translate the real-life experiences of the families we accompany into a collective narrative capable of fostering connection, listening and new possibilities, giving voice and visibility to people who would not normally have this opportunity,” said Emma Ursich, CEO of The Human Safety Net. “For me, this installation is a constellation of voices. It is not an individual gesture, but a shared space designed to bring to light what normally remains on the margins. Each element arises from encounters with different people, stories, desires and memories, and finds its definitive form within this shared space,” explained Marinella Senatore.
Now working alongside 98 NGOs in 25 countries
The Human Safety Net is a movement of people helping people, founded by Generali with the aim of unlocking the potential of those living in vulnerable circumstances so that they can improve the lives of their families and communities. Now working alongside 98 NGOs in 25 countries, the movement runs two programmes dedicated to accompanying families at risk of social exclusion with children aged from 0 to 6 and to the integration of refugees through work and entrepreneurship. We Rise by Lifting Others: the Luminaria and the tapestries. The heart of the installation is a light sculpture approximately four metres tall, which marks a new evolution in the artist's visual language. While recalling the tradition of festive illuminations in Southern Italy and the scenographic apparatus of Baroque candelabra and ephemeral catafalques from the 17th and 18th centuries, the work takes on a more essential and symbolic form here: a true relational architecture of light, capable of embracing and making visible collective voices, thoughts and experiences.
Medieval miniatures and Japanese illustrations
The structure is indeed interwoven with phrases and words created in workshops with families, alongside Baroque-inspired plant elements that evoke growth, interdependence and care, with a fish at the top serving as a powerful metaphor for crossing, transformation and continuity. Next to the Luminaria, six tapestries expand the exhibition's narrative into a more intimate and story- driven dimension. Inspired by Baroque engravings, medieval miniatures and Japanese illustrations, the textiles create symbolic landscapes inhabited by stylised human figures and embroidered texts: desires, plans, memories and reflections on personal and collective potential. Here too, the ‘I' gives way to the ‘we', and vulnerability becomes a shared opportunity. Images and words merge into an emotional and social cartography that captures the complexity of human relationships. The tapestries were created by the Chanakya School of Craft in Mumbai, chosen by the artist not only for its manufacturing excellence but also for its deep alignment with her values: the school has, in fact, transformed embroidery into a vehicle for female empowerment and social inclusion through vocational training.
DON'T MISS THIS WEEK:
Writing, storytelling, physical movement and moments of sharing
Co-creation as a transformative practice. We Rise by Lifting Others emerged from a co-creation process carried out between December 2025 and January 2026 with three of The Human Safety Net's partner NGOs working on the Families programme, which now operates in 23 countries alongside 65 organisations. The initiative began in Warsaw with Ta Szansa (“This Opportunity”), continued in Mestre with the Istituto Casa Famiglia San Pio X, and concluded in Palermo with the Centro per la Salute delle Bambine e dei Bambini. Through writing, storytelling, physical movement and moments of sharing, the artist has created, together with parents and children, a space for mutual listening and imagination, capable of drawing on both individual and collective resources. The words, thoughts and narratives that emerged during these sessions became the living material from which the texts and visual elements of the works took shape. More than just a productive facility, the workshops are an integral part of the artistic project: the place where artistic authorship opens up to interaction and art becomes a transformative experience.
The Home of The Human Safety Net
Workshops at The Human Safety Net. As part of the exhibition programme and throughout the duration of the exhibition, Marinella Senatore will be holding a series of workshops at The Home of The Human Safety Net, offering participants a hands-on experience that ties in with her research. Two meetings will be held focusing on somatic movement, centered on listening to the body and perceiving movement as both an individual and collective experience, and one meeting dedicated to Body Sound, in which voice, breath and movement will be used as tools to create a shared sound composition. With We Rise by Lifting Others, The Human Safety Net is renewing its commitment to activating the narrative power of contemporary art to raise awareness, encourage participation and bring about tangible social impact. The Home of The Human Safety Net is open every day except Tuesdays, from 10am to 6pm (winter opening hours) and from 10am to 7pm (summer opening hours).
The Human Safety Net is a foundation established by Generali
Admission is free. The Human Safety Net. The Human Safety Net is a global movement of people helping people, whose mission is to unlock the potential of those living in vulnerable circumstances, so that they can transform the lives of their families and communities. The Human Safety Net's programmes support vulnerable families with young children (aged 0–6) and contribute to the inclusion of refugees in society through work and entrepreneurship. To do this, we bring together non-governmental organisations and the private sector in Europe, Asia and South America. The motor of The Human Safety Net is a foundation established by Generali in 2017 and active in 25 countries with a network of 98 social enterprises as partners. The programmes contribute to five of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Families programme supports indicators relating to early childhood (SDGs 3 and 4); the Refugees programme helps to create jobs and sustainable communities (SDGs 8 and 11); finally, both programmes are based on the principle that significant impact can only be achieved through collaboration between different countries and stakeholders (SDG 17).
Marinella Senatore (born in Cava de' Tirreni in 1977)
The Home of The Human Safety Net is located in the heart of Venice, in St Mark's Square, at the Procuratie. Marinella Senatore (born in Cava de' Tirreni in 1977) pursues a multidisciplinary artistic practice that explores the aesthetic and political potential of collective processes, shared rituals and participatory forms of cultural production. Her work includes installations, tapestries, collages, films and collective performances, and unfolds through community-based projects and participatory processes in which text, craft practices and vernacular traditions, choreography, sound, architecture and light become tools for activating public space and generating forms of shared creation. In 2012, she founded The School of Narrative Dance (SOND), a nomadic, free and non-hierarchical educational platform based on empowerment, self-education and collective storytelling. To date, the project has involved over 8 million participants in more than 23 countries, bringing together local communities, students, activists, craftspeople, musicians and non-professional performers in collaborative artistic processes.
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
Her work is regularly presented in major international museums, including Centre Pompidou, Palais de Tokyo, Kunsthaus Zürich, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Berlinische Galerie, Castello di Rivoli, MAXXI and Moderna Museet, and is featured in important public and private collections worldwide. She has participated in numerous international biennials, including the Venice Biennale, the São Paulo Biennial and the Chengdu Biennale in China. Throughout her career, she has undertaken numerous residencies, including at ISCP (New York), Künstlerhaus Bethanien (Berlin) and the American Academy in Rome. Alongside her artistic practice, Senatore is actively involved in teaching and research, collaborating with universities, art academies and international cultural institutions on experimental teaching methods, participatory artistic practices and collective processes of cultural production.
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