During a visit to La Scarabattola’s workshop, Emanuele Scuotto – artist and master of Neapolitan nativity art – guided me through sacred, profane, and deeply symbolic works. Among the shepherds, he also showed me some of his personal creations, part of the Memorie Ipogee exhibition.

One of them seemed to move even while standing still: a Dianara, or Janara in Neapolitan dialect, a wise and rebellious woman, branded a witch, persecuted and burned alive.

I asked him if I could bring her to life, in my own way.

The result is an animation of a woman emerging from the dark, lit only by the fire that consumes her, and yet reveals her. Her body twists, frees itself, moves wildly to the rhythm of a cello that pulses like a savage heart.

It’s not just a dance against the flames, but against every imposed chain. A celebration of femininity that is free, untamed, and ancestral. Like Diana, goddess of the hunt and wild nights, whom the Dianare once worshipped.