Queens Museum is showcasing the works of Italian artist Marinella Senatore in a multifaceted installation entitled “Piazza Universale/Social Stages.” The exhibit takes up three galleries, and combines art, film, and audience participation in ways intended to evoke 19th- and 20th-century amusement parks and world fairs, according to curator Matteo Luccheti. He said the title reflects the idea of a piazza as “a public space where diverse walks of life meet and imagine how things could go otherwise — a concept dear to the Italian tradition of conceiving the public space.”

The exhibit’s entrance is a Coney Island-style fun-house doorway depicting a woman’s mouth. As with an amusement park ride, entering the space is to accept and unexpected experience, according to Luccheti. “Similarly, participants of Marinella’s works test themselves outside their comfort zone,” he said. “This is the space where social stages are crossed by collaborators of the different projects: literal stages that are temporarily built in the public space, but also the progression from one social position to an unforeseen one.”