Fatal attraction carried to obsession, to a conscious submission sometimes creating a sweet addiction, a vice turned chronic, an onanistic, a solitary pleasure. The 'vice' of women, of females with their unstoppable erotic potential as well a death drive. Milo Manara has been fancying this kind of woman for forty years, a woman he invented, designed and elaborated with his talent. Milo Manara talks to a woman he cannot have in a relationship constricted by Eros, forced into a condition that makes it hopeless for him to have her, even to love her. Impossible icons, untouchable dolls, unconsciously amoral creatures, slaves to life and to the stereotype that they embody. Lustful and yet inoffensive dreams.

According to the artist himself and to what has often been written about him, his mark reminds of Hugo Pratt and his imagination refers to Fellini's fanciful female universe. Doubtless. However a free, happily evil and yet light character like Pratt's Corto Maltese would never be able to understand the esoteric, erotic world of Manara's Claudia and Miele. Life for Corto is an adventure that requires discovery, while the two heroins invented by Manara apparently show no interest in life, they are not curious, they have no sincere passions because they hide their feelings behind an irresistible, sinful mask. They differ from Fellini's original females, with their huge breasts and voluptuous look, binding male since birth with their protection, slavery and fear, they show the charm of sin on their skin and live a life parallel to reality.

Manara's journey and his female dreams (or sufferings) are captivating, with figurative as well as literary implications. After more than forty years, this journey is now fairly glorified by the anthological exhibition Le stanze del desiderio, promoted by the city of Siena and by Fondazione Monte dei Paschi di Siena and organized inside the Complesso Museale di Santa Maria della Scala in Siena. A selection of 300 drawings, boards, panels, original pictures enriched by videos, installations and different elements that speak of the author who crossed the borders of illustrations and comics, an artist who meditated about colour and the infinite possibilities of signs working on the unlimited variants of the female body. Visitors will be welcome with a series of “rooms”, where they will relate with the wonderful obsession of Milo Manara thanks to audio and video clips, digital pictures and of course his original drawings and boards.

Le stanze del desiderio

INFORMATION

Complesso museale Santa Maria della Scala – Siena
Piazza del Duomo 2
tel. +39-0577-534511 / 534501
fax +39-0577-534510
infoscala@sms.comune.siena.it
tickets office
tel. +39-0577-534571

Opening hours
October 1, 2011 to January 8, 2012
Open daily, Mon. To Sun – 10.30 am. 7.30 pm.