Morena Luciani Russo,(1975) is an Italian visual artist, performer and scholar of Feminine cosmologies and archaic traditions and cults of Old Europe. She lives in the Susa Valley mountains, in the North West of Italy.
Her research moves between art and shamanism, in a fusion between contemporary language and ancestral symbols. An iconographic and anthropological journey into a multidimensional world, full of creatures on the border between human, animal and plant, a Feminine who expresses the power and sacredness of nature and other possible worlds.
In performative-ritual work, she creates collective experiences in which to restore life and meaning to the symbols and narratives that have inhabited our internal landscapes since the beginning.
She’s an author and shamanic teacher, widely recognized across Italy.
Morena Luciani Russo (1975) è un’artista visiva, performer e studiosa delle cosmologie femminili e delle antiche tradizioni e culti dell’Antica Europa. Vive tra le montagne della Val Susa, nel Nord-Ovest dell’Italia.
La sua ricerca si muove tra arte e sciamanesimo, in una fusione tra linguaggi contemporanei e simboli ancestrali. Un viaggio iconografico e antropologico in un mondo multidimensionale, popolato da creature al confine tra umano, animale e vegetale: un Femminile che esprime la potenza e la sacralità della natura e di altri mondi possibili.
Nel lavoro performativo-rituale crea esperienze collettive che restituiscono vita e significato ai simboli e alle narrazioni che abitano i nostri paesaggi interiori fin dall’inizio.
È un’autrice e un’insegnante di sciamanesimo, ampiamente riconosciuta in tutta Italia.
Education
1994-1997 Scuola d’Arte ARTE-STUDIO of Luca Vigna, Turin.
She continued as a self-taught artist.
2000 Bachelor’s Degree in Anthropology, with a thesis exploring Prehistoric Art and the Symbolic Roots of Shamanism.
Group Exhibitions
1999 – Finalist, Io Espongo, Azimut, Turin1999 – Prendete l’Underground, Azimut, Turin
2000 – Murazzi, Turin, curated by Luca Beatrice
2001 – Artisti a Torino, Torino Esposizioni, Young Artists Section
2001 – Alberto Vattiata Gallery, Turin
2001, 2003 – Annual Members’ Exhibition, Promotrice delle Belle Arti, Palazzo della Promotrice delle Belle Arti, Turin
2003 – Circolo d’Arte Ebdò, Turin
2008 – Paratissima, Turin (off-section of Artissima)
2014 – Omaggio alla Potnia, Sala delle Arti, Casa delle Donne, Rome – Guest exhibition at the conference Marija Gimbutas. Twenty Years of Goddess Studies
2014 – FIGURIAMOCI – Visions Beyond the Myth. Four Artists for Four Goddesses, National Archaeological Museum of Paestum
Performances
2015 – Aedee, performance with Morena Luciani Russo and Thuline Andreoni, Villa 5, Turin
2016 – Madre Orsa, ritual performance dedicated to the most ancient goddess of humanity, International Conference Indigenous Culturesof Peace Culture- Indigene di Pace. I Sentieri della Terra, Fabbrica delle E, Turin
Solo Exhibitions
1998 – Ruggine, Turin
2005 – Le donne non sono macchine! (Women Are Not Machines!), Former Church of Santa Croce, Avigliana
Special Projects & Collaborations
2000 – Included in the Care of Archive, VIAFARINI Gallery, Milan; participation in gallery workshops
2006 – Participation in the HYPE project (Milan, Amsterdam)
2006 – La città materna, collaborative project with Cécile Dossogne and Monica Seksich, Casa Marchini-Ramello, San Maurizio (Turin)
2007 – La città materna, guest exhibition at the conference Il Divino. Attraversare il presente, osare il futuro. Relazioni, pratiche e saperi delle donne, Pinerolo (Turin)
2009 – Video presentation at the conference Il Risveglio delle I-Dee (with Ass. Gilanie, Catania)
2009 – Installation La valigia. Viaggio nell’immaginario femminile (The Suitcase. A Journey into the Female Imagination), Susa (Turin)
2011 – Città Materna, Palazzo Farnese, Civic Museum of Contemporary Art, Ortona (CH)
2012 – Guest exhibition, Culture Indigene di Pace. Donne e Uomini Oltre il Conflitto
Publications & Covers
2012 – Cover artwork for Procreare la Vita, Filosofare la Morte by Aida Ribero
2019 – Cover artwork for “13 Donne per 13 Lune”, Psiche 2 Publishing
International Recognition
2021 – Wisdom Across the Ages, selected by the Jury of the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology for the Annual Symposium; featured in the ASWM Gallery