Guinevere: the new Music Director

Ginevra Battaglia, known as Guinevere, is an Italian artist and singer-songwriter with an intuitive and multidisciplinary creative approach.
Her debut album TO ALL THE LOST SOULS (2024) received acclaim in both Italy and abroad.
To create the new playlists for Senato Hotel Milano, she experienced the hotel through art, writing, and attentive listening.
We asked her a few questions to explore her sonic universe.

You're not just a singer or songwriter — who is Guinevere today? How would you describe your artistic identity now?
  
I think “multidisciplinary artist” describes me well, as I move across different creative worlds and let them interact. Photography, for example, has helped shape my aesthetic vision. Working in theatre before I began making music gave me a strong relationship with the stage — there’s a kind of reverence, seriousness, and professionalism. Holding the space on stage is a central part of the performance for me.
Creating sculptures, painting, and researching plants and flowers are all elements that constantly interact, evolving into artworks, performances, or music.
 
There’s a mix of intimacy and unpredictability in your selections. Which feeling do you relate to most?
 
I believe everything starts with intimacy — if I don’t feel something deeply, I can’t transmit it. At the same time, I always keep an open eye toward the unexpected. The two coexist. Intimacy is my starting point; the unexpected is what keeps me moving forward when writing a song or searching for a sound.

Let’s talk music again: do you write more with your voice, your hands, or your ears these days?
 
With my hands — but not through an instrument. I start by writing on paper. Often it begins as a poem, which then becomes a vocal melody later on, as I recall the words. I never studied or learned to play an instrument, and while I sometimes regret that now, it left me with a wide imaginative space. I always begin with my vocal library and a piece of text.
 
How does your approach shift when moving from musician to curator?
 
They’re different, but deeply related. When composing, I have total freedom — I can shape a piece however I want. Still, each song has a way of telling you how it wants to be played. That’s why you always need a sensitive eye for the unexpected, as we said, and for everything subtle and hidden within music.

Out of the five playlists — “Morning”, “Caffè”, “Aperitivo”, “Lunch”, and “Evening” — is there one you feel most connected to?
 
That’s a beautiful question. I spent a lot of time at the hotel and felt deeply connected to each moment of the day. But I’d say “Evening”, where I followed my instinct the most. That said, there’s a big part of me in “Morning” too. I’m especially happy I included Wassermannmusik by Hans Otte — a harp piece I discovered years ago that changed the way I listen and understand sound. For that playlist, I started from contemporary sounds and traced them back in time, always with an open ear for the unexpected.
 
Did you also think of the hotel’s spaces and the rhythm of the people moving through them?
 
Absolutely — I approached the hotel in a very multidisciplinary way: through my computer, a notebook for impressions, and even a box of watercolors to paint the colors I imagined connected to the music. They became like small amulets, ways of capturing thoughts and sensations inspired by what I observed.

Did being at the hotel inspire you to compose something new?

So many ideas came to me — many turned into phrases. Senato was a fertile space for me. Creating the playlists became a journey into myself, as did imagining the photographs and videos that could be created within its spaces.
 
And if you could play one song with your feet in the water of the Senato courtyard, which one would it be?
 
Maybe The Waves Are Calling Us — for piano and voice.

The playlist titles of SENATO HOTEL MILANO are:
"MORNING / soft spells"
"LUNCH / slow ember"
"CAFFÈ / interlude"
"APERITIVO / sundrift"
"EVENING / inward murmurs"

are available to listen on SPOTIFY