LIBERE TUTTE
Curated by Daniele Capra and Giuseppe Frangi
Casa Testori
26 November 2019 – 16 February 2020
BOUNDLESS WOMEN
Daniele Capra and Giuseppe Frangi
Libere tutte [Boundless Women] takes its starting point from the idea of gathering together works by “artiste” [female artists in Italian] in Italy. It sets aside, momentarily, questions of gender and attempts to document the importance and the overwhelming force of the artistic research carried out by female artists in Italy. Unfortunately, our country is in too many ways still linked to rigid patterns and an asymmetric male/female situation in its social and economic relations. The title of the exhibition, inspired by one of the slogans of the 1970s demonstrations, explains our desire to speak of art and to understand why today’s female artists are proving to be a step ahead. Libere tutte is an exhibition that poses questions. It is open in its themes and in the media employed. It is anarchic and without easy answers. It could, with perfect symmetry, have been called Liberi tutti, as one of the artists involved has acutely suggested. We have for this reason methodologically expunged the word “woman” (and adjectives that might reflect this semantic universe) from our vocabulary and, obviously, we have never used it in our communications. The project aims to explore the complexity of the viewpoints “artiste” have introduced onto the horizon of artistic production, proving themselves capable of courageous departures from fashionable trends. Their work has enlarged the spectrum of artistic sensibility, revealing an important experimental vocation. It thereby confirms what Lea Vergine was the first to note, commenting lucidly in an interview that these female artists’ works are “bold emblems of a clearly defined human condition, created with that “pitilessness” that casts aside the concept of normality”. Libere tutte is not a contemporary-style 8th March exhibition, but an attempt to offer a snapshot of the presence of “artiste” in the Italian art system, a phenomenon that is impressing by its vitality, intensity and strength. The project aims to offer some of the most significant examples, from a wide range of generations, of their artistic research, covering all expressive forms and the widest array of content.
Libere tutte has been conceived as an open, experimental exhibition, with the margins of error inevitable in attempting a dialogue on the field, involving a living relationship with the works, with the itinerary and with the spectator’s eyes. We have therefore chosen to allot individual spaces to the artists (a room each), enabling them to emphasize the specific nature of their particular projects. We have made only three exceptions, sharing the spaces with clearly dialectic solutions or synergic combinations.
After the exhibition had been mounted and metabolized, it seemed worthwhile to attempt a summary, singling out certain significant elements in the artist’s thought and actions. These are situations marked by a sensibility that can intercept the most significant research and the most pregnant languages, as well as the deep movements of collective psychology. As well as by enormous courage in facing the challenges – artistic, political and social – presented by our times.
THE EXHIBITION
Libere tutte, an exhibition project curated by Daniele Capra and Giuseppe Frangi, presents 21 of the most significant women artists working in our country, with over sixty works ranging from painting to sculpture, from video to installation.
The exhibition, hosted in the rooms of the house that was once home to Giovanni Testori, ideally continues the steps of the project Graffiare il presente, which the previous year took stock of the situation on the pictorial research carried out in Italy.
THE ARTISTS
Renata Boero, Linda Carrara, Elisabetta Di Sopra, Silvia Giambrone, Debora Hirsch, Iva Lulashi, Lalla Lussu, Elena Mazzi, Beatrice Meoni, Maria Morganti, Isabella Pers, Nazzarena Poli Maramotti, Michela Pomaro, Laura Pugno, Chris Rocchegiani, Giorgia Severi, Marta Spagnoli, Esther Stocker, Sara Tirelli, Lucia Veronesi, Serena Vestrucci.
Photographs: Michele Alberto Sereni and Natascia Giulivi.
Go to the bookshop
Catalogue designed by CH RO MO
Sponsor: Natixis