The exhibition proposes for the first time a wide-ranging investigation and a precise reconstruction of the relationship between visual arts and feminist movement in Italy, identifying in 1978 the catalyst year of all energies in play (not only in Italy). The exhibition is realized thanks to the collaboration of Mart, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto and Frittelli arte contemporanea, and opened during the Milan Art Week, in conjunction with miart, International Modern and Contemporary Art Fair of Milan. Media partner and catalogue: Flash Art. The exhibition is sponsored by Dior.
In 1978, with the exhibition Materialization of Language curated by Mirella Bentivoglio, almost eighty women artists - including Tomaso Binga, Irma Blank, Maria Lai, Lucia Marcucci, Giulia Niccolai, Anna Oberto, Mira Schendel, Patrizia Vicinelli - make their entrance to the Venice Biennale for the first time, loudly claiming space and visibility in a place traditionally very difficult for women to conquer.
In the same edition of the Biennale, an anthological exhibition was dedicated to Ketty La Rocca, one of the leading figures of the Italian neo-avant-garde, deceased in 1976 aged 38 years, now part of important collections such as MoMA and Centre Pompidou. At the Magazzini del Sale, the Biennale also gave space to the "Immagine" group of Varese and the "Women / Image / Creativity" group of Naples.
This year also marks the closing of some important experiences related to art and women’s movement. In 1978 the group Cooperativa Beato Angelico in Rome, the first artistic space entirely run by women, interrupted its activities. This group was fueled by an important artist, Carla Accardi (after the end of her collaboration with Carla Lonzi). But 1978 is also the year of the international feminist seminar Comrade Woman: Women's Question - A New Approach? in Belgrade and the first feminist exhibition in Wroclaw, Poland, First International Women's Art Exhibition organized by Natalia LL. Many international women artists worked in Italy in those same years: Marina Abramović, Sanja Iveković, Gina Pane, Rebecca Horn, etc.
The exhibition will also present a wide selection of printed materials linked to feminist movements - posters, fanzines, LP, together with photographs and photographic books, documenting the struggles for divorce, abortion and the law against violence shot by important photographers like Paola Agosti and Agnese De Donato.
The set up, transport and logistics, the conservation of the works are entrusted to Open Care - Services for Art.
Guided tours and other days / times free and by reservation - with the opportunity to visit the Open Care restoration laboratories.