The Garibaldi Meucci Museum in Staten Island is pleased to present Poetic-Action, a site-specific installation by contemporary artists Anna Lise Jensen and Alyssa Casey. 

Poetic-Action is a response to the story of two women, English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861), and Ana Maria de Jesus Ribeiro da Silva (1821-1849)—also known as Anita Garibaldi, the life-companion of General Giuseppe Garibaldi.

While living in Florence, Elizabeth Barrett Browning famously wrote a poem glorifying the Italian liberation movement of the mid-nineteenth century, the Risorgimento. In response to her poem—written over the course of three years—artist Anna Lise Jensen focuses on the poet’s own emotions: enthusiasm, disillusion, and solace through hope. Jensen’s work, titled Shadow Play, consists of a series of prints to function as a commentary on aspects of Browning’s life experience, such as living as a foreigner in Florence, her political activism, domestic tyranny, and experiencing motherhood at forty-three. 

In a different vein, artist Alyssa Casey is responding to the life of Brazilian revolutionary Ana Maria de Jesus Ribeiro da Silva. From Rio Grande, on the Southern coast of Brazil, Ana Maria de Jesus Ribeiro da Silva went to Italy, where she joined the General Giuseppe Garibaldi to continue their battles to free people from a foreign power. She eventually died in Italy, while bearing a child, where she is remembered and referred to by the diminutive “Anita” and where her political actions and adventurous life are often obliterated by her role alongside Giuseppe Garibaldi.

The exhibition program includes a performative act to be carried out by Alyssa Casey during the opening reception (TBD). Casey's projection of Anita's words are painted on cloth and will be hung next to each doorway of the museum during the opening as a form of ceremonial action.

In addition, at a date to be determined, Anna Lise Jensen will lead a community event in the gardens of the museum, a communal dinner for people on both sides of the Verrazzano Bridge. As a community organizer, Jensen’s artistic and social practice addresses politics and power by allowing the potential of communal activism to function as an artistic medium.

An artist talk with both the artists and the curator will be held on Saturday, June 20th, 2020 prior to the community event.

Poetic-Action, curated by Valeria Federici, reflects on the role of women in history and on the role of history in the process of understanding and approaching past and current events in their complexity.

As part of the exhibition it will be possible to explore The Garibaldi Panorama and the Risorgimento digital project through a touchscreen device generously made available by the Virtual Humanities Lab, Department of Italian Studies at Brown University.

The mission of the Garibaldi Meucci Museum is to collect, hold, own, maintain, preserve, and exhibit historical objects and artifacts relating to the lives of General Giuseppe Garibaldi and Antonio Meucci; to promote an understanding of Italian-American heritage and a positive image of Italian-Americans; to conduct educational, cultural, and artistic programming designed to eliminate ethnic and racial prejudice for a diverse and growing audience.