A Forest Dark

The work reintroduces us to the allegorical dimension of Dante’s famous “Dark Forest,” an interior landscape where a female figure stands as the central figure, replacing the most celebrated Italian poet. Her presence breaks the classic canon of male protagonism, becoming a concrete representation of the universality of Dante’s journey through Hell, and of the journey of the female gender, systematically oppressed over the millennia by ancient and outdated traditions, which have never truly disappeared. The new Dante becomes an archetype embodying the personal inner journey of millions of people, grappling with a hostile society, inner torment, and the hope of a better future in which to “see the stars again.”