"Partirò e porto le cose a casa"

The exhibition and the catalogue “Partirò e porto le cose a casa”. Il Fondo Eleonora Duse di proprietà della famiglia Gemmi represent not only a fitting tribute, 100 years after her death, to one of the greatest artists of all time, but also a reflection on the role of theatre as a space for experimentation, expressive freedom and social innovation. 

The catalogue documents and illustrates for the first time the existence of numerous objects that once belonged to Eleonora Duse and were privately preserved in Florence for more than a century by the Gemmi family. 

The collection includes ‘’ tools of the trade‘’ and accessories from everyday life. The objects, in their variety, make it possible to retrace, by making it tangible, the real everyday life of a woman who was also an actress and a leading lady of extraordinary qualities.  

This exhibition helps us to understand something more about a great artist who was also a skilful entrepreneur of herself, and recounts, in a small way, not only the toil of her daily work, but also her simple intimacy of life.

Francesca Simoncini teaches Disciplines of the Performing Arts at the University of Florence.