Where and when
Orario
11:00 – 19:00
Museo Novecento
Who
Valie Export
Artist
Paola Ugolini
Curator
Silvia Giambrone
Artist
On 25 November, on the occasion of the International day for the elimination of violence against women, the Museo Novecento and its artistic director Sergio Risaliti, present – in concert with the Department of Rights and Equal Opportunities and the Department of Culture of the Municipality of Florence – a series of special projects gathered under the provocative title We Stand Together to make this celebration even more current, as well as symbolic, involving some contemporary artists.
In fact, the program intends to broaden and deepen the reflection around this day, emphasizing the importance of a social, political and cultural commitment against all types of violence and sexual discrimination.
Guest of honor of the day will be Valie Export, whose practice has always reflected on issues related to gender identity, questioning stereotypes and demands against freedom of expression and sexuality. Performer, director and photographer, the Austrian Valie Export, born Waltraud Lehner (Linz, 1940), is one of the best-known artists on the contemporary art scene, a point of reference for the artists of subsequent generations. Suffice it to recall that Marina Abramovic on the occasion of her exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York reinterpreted one of Valie Export’s most famous performances, placing it among the six fundamental performative works of the last century.
Inside the Sala D’Arme of Palazzo Vecchio, from 11 to 17, some of the artist’s video works will be projected in loop while at 18 there will be a talk which, in the form of a dialogue with the curator Paola Ugolini and the artist Silvia Giambrone (Agrigento, 1981), will offer food for thought on issues related to the body, identity and gender.
The practice of Valie Export – inaugurated in the early seventies when
renounces her paternal surname to adopt a pseudonym that mentions a well-known brand of cigarettes of the time – it is based primarily on the themes of feminism, of which she was an activist and leading exponent, and of the commodification of art and of the body, primary object of many of his actions and works.
At the same time, two works by Silvia Giambrone will be exhibited in the rooms of the permanent collection on the second floor of the Museo Novecento (which will remain visible until January 9, 2020) that address the themes of both domestication to violence and the taboos surrounding this drive. Using various expressive mediums including video, drawing, collage, sculpture, photography and performance, the artist leads in his works to a reflection on the relationships and imbalances of power that poison human relationships. His installations often represent ferocious forays into the private sector that make it even more evident how often violence, to paraphrase Hannah Arendt, is almost banal in its superficial evil. A selection of works by Valie Export and Silvia Giambrone will be screened inside the Museum’s Cinema Hall from 11 to 19.
Finally, the Cortile di Michelozzo of Palazzo Vecchio (from 11 to 19) will host the installation The most dangerous place, by the artists Silvia Levenson and Natalia Saurin, consisting of 94 ceramic plates decorated with phrases extrapolated from the media and often used to minimize episodes of chronicle related to violence. The intervention testifies to a war often consumed within the home, and echoes in the number 94, which recalls the women killed in Italy in 2019. These are phrases or words that speak of desire, control, power relations, pronounced from men unable to manage the refusal or failure of a romantic relationship, to testify that femicide is not the consequence of a sudden and momentary violent impulse but the result of a long trial and a culture of violence.
The events of We stand togetHer are part of the program of the Festival of Rights 2019.
Concept and artistic direction
Sergio Risaliti.