3 Pieces

“The most disconcerting things are not those that we have never known, but those that once knew and have since forgotten.” Don’t believe to have any rights, Women’s Library, Milan.

3 PIECES, 3 ink jet prints on paper, 76×100 cm; HD video on DVD, 5’25”; 3 color prints, 30×45 cm, 2011

In June 2010, the French magazine May published a large section of archival material “coming from what is called the feminist nebula in Italy in the 70s” [1]. During the same month Vittoria Ciolini, president of Dryphoto arte contemporanea, a 30 years old contemporary art gallery, asked me to take part to an exhibition in that space. In the 70s and 80s, Vittoria Ciolini was part of the Italian feminist nebula. I decided to work on this feminist nebula for the exhibition in the gallery. I tried to face with the issues raised by those women who “created the circumstances through which the transformation of the self and others became possible” [2], and with their disappearing, their absence as well. Their disappearing, their absence, has became the key point of the work, composed of 3 parts: See you there at nine that takes care of feminist places; Going away recalling words and voices and What a luck to have met you where a disappearing act is performed.

The work was part of the exhibition let’s keep in touch,  (you may find images and informations here and here) with Augusto Buzzegoli, curated by Eleonora Farina, at Dryphoto arte contemporanea, 2011.

Here is the catalogue, with texts by Vittoria Ciolini and Eleonora Farina.

See you there at nine  (3 ink jet prints on paper, 76×100 cm)

Thanks to the help of the women who took part to the feminist movement in my city, I discovered a former self organized sexual health clinics and two meeting places of feminist groups (Consultorio A.E.D, Collettivo Femminista and Pulsatilla group). These places played a significative role in the 70s and in the 80s but now they are completely forgotten, being respectively a  dressmaker’s shop, a private flat and a garage. I went in front of these places for several days and tried to reestablish the lost relation.

Going away (HD video on DVD, 5’25”)

The second piece directly uses the words of Carla Lonzi and stages them through the voice of Vittoria Ciolini. A text, made up of fragments from the book Vai pure (Feel free to leave), is performed by Vittoria Ciolini.

The book is a 4 days long recorded conversation between the feminist and art critic Carla Lonzi and its partner (the artist Pietro Consagra) about their splitting up: it is an oscillation between the need for autonomy and dependency, between exposition and vulnerability, between the fear of disappearing and the impossibility of staying.

You can read the text here.

Together with the video I displayed a text telling about a night I spent outside in the attempt of abandoning the known for the unknown. I captured this action leaving the shutter of the camera permanently open: a day before the exhibition I decided to not include these images into the exhibition, and I still wonder why.

MANIFESTO

7 febbraio.
February the 7th.

Sono le 6 di mattina. La notte è finita, e anche l’azione.
It’s 6 a.m. Night is over, and so is the action.

Che cosa ho fatto? Sono stata fuori tutta la notte cercando di sbilanciare qualcosa.
What have I done? I spent the whole night out trying to push things off-balance.

Cercavo uno spazio altro, non l’ho trovato, le cose sono sempre le stesse.
I was looking for a different space, I haven’t found it, things are always the same.

L’unico spazio è stato il mio movimento. Almeno così mi sembra ora.
The only space was my movement. At least so it seems to me now.

Non potevo restare ferma, ma ci ho messo troppo accanimento, troppa intenzione,
sono stata troppo ansiosa per questa mostra.
I couldn’t stay calm, but I was too persistent, the action was too deliberate,
I was too anxious about this exposition.

In ogni caso stare fuori mi ha calmata, se ora sto bene con i miei dubbi,
un qualche strato di tensione se ne deve essere andato.
In any case, staying out for a while calmed me down, in that now I feel confortable
with my own doubts. Few layers of tension maybe must have gone by now.

Che cosa che ho fatto?
What have I done?
Se nto la voce di Vittoria e le parole di Carla Lonzi e mi sembra utile.
I heard the voice of Vittoria and the words of Carla Lonzi and I find them useful.

Ci avrò messo abbastanza attenzione, abbastanza cura?
Had I paid enough attention? Enough care?

Ho fatto tutto il possibile per essere in pari, e abbandonare, andare via.
Che cosa ho dimenticato?
I did all I could do to be at measure, and leave, go away. What did I forget?

Cercavo una circostanza un pretesto per espormi. Mi sono trovata ferma
tra l’andare e il restare.
I was looking for an excuse to expose myself.
I found myself caught between leaving and staying.

 What a luck to have met you  (3 color prints, 30×45 cm)

A sequence of three photos describes my act of disappearing. An empty place is first shown, then with me in the center, and finally left empty again. What has changed? What’s left?

The place chosen is a center for Chinese medicine and Qi Gong founded by three women that met each other in feminist groups.

During the exhibition the piece What a luck to have met you has been stolen from the gallery: thanks to an unknow person the disappearing acts goes on!