ARIANNA GALLI IN SHORT
Arianna Galli, artistically known as ARSENIUS, is an Italian-French surrealist rapper, author of books, poetess, literary and film critic, and illustrator, who combines the worlds of written and musical expression.
Born in Brescia in 2002 and raised in Milan, she emerged as a literary talent at an early age, winning several national poetry competitions that positioned her within the Italian literary scene. Her debut poetry collection, "Non c'erano fiori" (2022), followed by "Il Deserto di Milano" (2023), has received critical acclaim for its evocative exploration of trauma, memory, death and love as a way for humanity to resurrect from its frailties. Her works has appeared in major Italian literary journals and has been translated into multiple languages, securing her place in both national and international poetry circles.
Arianna’s artistic journey evolved into the world of music with the creation of ARSENIUS, a musical alter ego that embodies her subconscious and blends rap with surrealist themes. ARSENIUS represents a powerful intersection of rap, jazz, and noir, channeling music as a tool for social critique and deep personal exploration. Her debut single, "POETS ARE STILL ALIVE" layers poignant lyrics over cinematic rap noir rhythms to spotlight poetry’s enduring role as a voice against social conformity and censorship.
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Her work bridges surrealist imagination and raw introspection, encouraging listeners to explore the depths of emotion, resilience, and humanity.
Long biography
Born in Brescia on March 29, 2002, but Milanese by adoption, Arianna Galli, known in music under the stage name ARSENIUS, is a Italian-French poetess, literary and film critic, illustrator and songwriter, author of the poetry collections Non c'erano fiori (Giuliano Ladolfi Editore, 2022) and Il Deserto di Milano (Edizioni Ensemble, 2023), both distributed by Mondadori. Discovered as a literary talent in elementary school, she won several under-18 literary prizes that introduced her to the national literary scene. In 2020 she opened her blog of poetry and short stories and began her activity as a literary critic ( and later also as a film critic), collaborating with the historic cultural magazine Studi Cattolici, a collaboration that would lead to her entry into the heart of the literary scene, being discovered and guided by those who were her Masters, including Cesare Cavalleri, Alessandro Rivali and Giampiero Neri. She then began to make herself known to an international audience when, in August 2021, one of her poems was chosen to open the international piano festival Lej Festival.
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The real turning point, however, is December 13, 2021, when the great literary critic Maurizio Cucchi chooses and comments on two of his poems dedicated to the city of Milan in an article for the print issue of La Repubblica . On January 31, 2022, her first work Non c'erano fiori, a poetic collection set in the subconscious and written in 2018 following a traumatic event in the author's life, namely the untimely death of her then-boyfriend in an accident, was published by Giuliano Ladolfi Editore. The book was a critical and public success, appearing in Corriere della Sera in La Lettura, a cultural supplement attached to the Sunday edition of the newspaper, and in the magazines Interno Poesia, Alma Poesia, Rivista '900 letterario.
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This was followed by the publication in 2023 of his second poetic work, considered his most successful, Il Deserto di Milano, published by Edizione Ensemble (also in a bilingual Italian-English edition), compiled between 2020 and 2022. The poetry collection, which also contains poems published in La Repubblica, was well received by the public and critics, appearing in the newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano and in Atelier Poesia magazines, Crocetti Editore's international poetry culture magazine Poesia.
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Poems from the sylloge have also appeared in several international magazines translated into French (Incertain Regard Revue), Spanish (Vislumbre Revista) and Portuguese (Eufeme Magazine).
In addition, the City of Sirmione sponsored an event dedicated to the book in connection with Maria Callas as part of the series of events organized by the City of Sirmione to pay tribute to the Divina on the occasion of the centenary of her birth.
She is also the author of short stories, including "Il Coraggio di scegliere", published by Satisfiction, which is about two rebellious souls in the context of World War II Berlin, starting from a reflection on the contrast between Hegel's and Kierkegaard's philosophy of choice. She was also selected, as a film critic, to serve on the jury of the seventeenth edition of the ongoing Piccolo Grande Cinema Festival in November 2024.
At the level of academic preparation, after graduating from high school with the highest marks, she continued her studies at the Catholic University, graduating in Foreign Languages and Literature with a major in Communication and Cinema, again with honors, then enrolling in the Accademia Nazionale del Cinema for the course in Directing and Screenwriting and the master's degree in Art and Industry of Narration: from Literature to Cinema, also at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart.
In 2024, she began the publication of her surrealist musical production, set in his subconscious.
Her writing style
Through the years, Arianna Galli developed her own writing style: one that focuses on the musicality of the text, both prose and poetic one.
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Her poetry is made of music and images, inner visions that try to explain life and its mystery in a symbolic and surrealistic form. It focuses mostly on the contemporary man, its perception of love and inner emptiness, its relationship with infinity and with the city, representative of the human pain and fragility.
Illustrations
Graphic art is her other vocation. In particular, she focuses on human gazes, feeling and torments. She experiments with materials, for example red nail polish, mascara and wrapping paper. In her art, lines and colours are indefinite and what she represents, exteriority, is only a pretext and starting point for listening to the voices of human soul.
