In the Orto Botanico di Roma — and in botanical gardens around the world — something obvious and enigmatic, sunny and shady, vital and frightening is celebrated day and night: ears within the city that auscultate the plants. Human animals listen to the vegetating enigma from which they originate. If flowers are the sexual organs of plants, how much pleasure does a rose feel? And how can two different coloured roses be hybridised to produce a third? How freely do plants hold together the masculine and the feminine! And what are flowers, really? “A sharp vigilance silences them”, writes Amelia Rosselli. Naturale sconosciuto seeks to express, in verse and free prose, my astonishment and my gratitude towards this living, teeming world that, as it breathes, keeps us breathing too.
– Mariangela Gualtieri
Mariangela Gualtieri was born in Cesena, in Romagna. She graduated in architecture from IUAV in Venice. In 1983, together with director Cesare Ronconi, she co-founded the Teatro Valdoca, where she works as dramaturg. From the very beginning, she focused on the oral delivery of poetry, devoting her complete attention to the amplification of the voice and the connection between poetic verse and live music. Published texts include: Antenata (Crocetti, 1992 and 2020), Fuoco Centrale (Einaudi, 2003), Senza polvere senza peso (Einaudi, 2006), Sermone ai cuccioli della mia specie (L’arboreto Editore, 2006), Paesaggio con fratello rotto (book and DVD, Luca Sossella Editore, 2007), Bestia di gioia (Einaudi, 2010), Caino (Einaudi, 2011), Sermone ai cuccioli della mia specie with audio CD (Valdoca, 2012), A Seneghe. Mariangela Gualtieri/Guido Guidi (Perda Sonadora Imprentas, 2012), Le giovani parole (Einaudi, 2015), Voci di tenebra azzurra (Stampa 2009, 2016), Beast of Joy. Selected Poems (Chelsea Editions, New York, 2018), co-author of Album dei Giuramenti and Tavole dei Giuramenti by Teatro Valdoca (Quodlibet, 2019), Quando non morivo (Einaudi, 2019), Paesaggio con fratello rotto (Einaudi, 2021), L’incanto fonico. L’arte di dire la poesia (Einaudi, 2022), Bello mondo (Einaudi ET Poesia, 2024), Ruvido umano (Einaudi, 2024), Album per pensare e non pensare (Bompiani, 2025).
by and with Mariangela Gualtieri
with the guidance of Cesare Ronconi
press office and care Lorella Barlaam
production Teatro Valdoca
with the contribution of Regione Emilia-Romagna, Comune di Cesena
Mariangela Gualtieri is present at ST26 with the support of SIAE
Mariangela Gualtieri / Teatro Valdoca Mariangela Gualtieri / Teatro Valdoca
ph. Serena Campanini