ORIANA FALLACI
A real bad ass woman. The greatest Italian journalist that ever existed, one of the most well know writers of the 20th century, an activist, a woman who does not give up, who does not stay quiet “Apro la mia boccaccia. […] E dico quello che mi pare” (I open my mouth…And I say what I like).
She traveled and wrote, wrote about wars, sufferings, love, and life. The life she very much loved and fought for till the end.
An arrogant, indefatigable, witty Florentine writer, with an insatiable desire to tell the truth and with only one idea in mind: to do as men do. She did better.
Our favorite read: Una Lettera A Un Bambino Mai Nato
KETTY LA ROCCA
“It is not time for women, for statements:
they have too much to do,
and then they would have to use a language that is not theirs,
within a language that is as foreign as it is hostile to them…”
With this affirmation, Ketty la Rocca detaches herself from the masculine dominant culture of the 70s, expressing the need for a new language. In her works, first with Irony and nonsense and then with collages she demystify the stereotypical female representations. She then finally finds a new form of communication: the gestures of the face and hands represent a more authentic language than the verbal one.
BIANCA PUCCIARELLI
(alias Tomaso Binga)
Just an idea of what women had to do not too long ago… just to be taken into consideration?
Bianca Pucciarelli had to enter the world of art with the masculine pseudonym of Tomaso Binga. She then decided to restart, using her body as a source of inspiration, to regain the ability to represent herself as an active subject. Like Ketty La Rocca, Bianca seeks expressive language. She manages to find it through an alphabet in which the artist herself assumes, with her naked body, the shape of the letters of the alphabet. On the one hand the body of the woman, on the other, the adaptation of it to the linguistic and symbolic forms of patriarchal culture, inevitably will shape her identity.
Bianca’s works were the protagonists of the Dior FW19/20 fashion show. A hymn to the Feminist rebellion in art and, at the same time, the affirmation of femininity through fashion.
MIRELLA BENTIVOGLIO
Mirella Bentivoglio was awarded numerous prizes for both her poetic, artistic activity and critical mind as an activist. Her entire life is linked to the goal of claiming a feminine creative space in the second half of the twentieth century.
She explored the language that fragments, recomposes, and reinvents, always keeping “gender awareness” at the centre. She focused on the relationship between word and image, which made her the international protagonist of verb-visual poetry: she felt the sign of urgency and the need to communicate.
Jump into Italy’s art scene and find out which exhibitions not to miss in 2022
GIANNA NANNINI
Rockstar, idol, Italian songwriter, mother at 54, but first and foremost a woman. One who stood up for the right to abort and encourage women to be free to love whoever one wants and to always choose themselves first.
Start listening to Gianna’s music, and while you’re at it, meet another revolutionary Italian singer
ALDA MERINI
One of the greatest poetesses of contemporary Italy. A troubled life, one in and out of mental asylums — in 1947 she encountered “le prime ombre della mente” (the first shadows of the mind.) These are the words she would use to describe her bipolar disorder which will accompany her through out life, in and out of darkness. In her suffering she found a unique voice, a great awareness of pain, and the human condition. A deep understanding of life and love that led to some of the most touching verses that move and excite generations.
