“Windows of Freedom – the Women’s Bookshop of Milan, yesterday, today”.
Fabbrica del Vapore 1 April – 6 June 2019
Opening April 1st, 6.30pm
Catalogo Nottetempo, 27 x 27 cm, 28 euros
Curated and edited by Francesca Pasini & Citra Piloni
“Art is not universal because it overcomes difference between men and women, but because it represents that difference through the ineluctable movement taking place between the creator and the observer”, writes Francesca Pasini in the catalogue. The female artists’ works displayed in one of the bookshop’s windows (the “Fourth” window), along with those donated in 1975, on the one hand tell the story that is such a vital part of this exhibition, with a series of cultural and political meetings. On the other, as they are intertwined with the bookshop’s practice, they show that women’s freedom has been born. A change in civilisation is underway; and art is the real, symbolic and metaphorical figure of that civilisation, from prehistoric times onwards.
Vandana Shiva, who was previously a guest at the bookshop during the Milan Expo, is returning especially for this occasion with a conference dedicated to “eco-feminism, one of the key responses to the environmental crisis and climate chaos”.
Artists
Carla Accardi, Paola Anziché, Marina Ballo Charmet, Mirella Bentivoglio, Valentina Berardinone, Tomaso Binga, Enrica Borghi, Alessandra Caccia, Chiara Camoni, Nilde Carabba, Alice Cattaneo, Vittoria Chierici, Gabriella Ciancimino, Dadamaino, Marta Dell’Angelo, Amalia Del Ponte, Paola Di Bello, Elisabetta Di Maggio, Elena El Asmar, Bruna Esposito, Stefania Galegati, Goldschmied e Chiari, Sophie Ko, Christiane Löhr, Loredana Longo, Claudia Losi e Sabrina Mezzaqui, Paola Mattioli, Marzia Migliora, Concetta Modica, Maria Morganti, Margherita Morgantin, Ina Otzko, Maria Papadimitriou, Angela Passarello, Annie Ratti, Caterina Saban, Elisa Sighicelli, Eugenia Vanni, Grazia Varisco, Nanda Vigo, Tori Wrånes.
The Libreria delle donne di Milano (Women’s Bookshop of Milan) was founded in 1975 with the financial support of Carla Accardi, Valentina Berardinone, Nilde Carabba, Dadamaino, and Lucia Pescador, who donated their works. This exhibition includes those by Accardi and Berardinone, on loan from the art collectors who had purchased them at the time.
After the bookshop had opened, Lea Vergine and others came up with the idea of a portfolio of lithographs by Carla Accardi, Mirella Bentivoglio, Valentina Berardinone, Nilde Carabba, Tomaso Binga, Dadamaino, Amalia Del Ponte, Grazia Varisco and Nanda Vigo. The portfolio, accompanied by texts by Lea Vergine and the artists, is included in the exhibition and the catalogue.
Then and now, politics, art, philosophy and literature have always been the cornerstones of the bookshop’s activities.
The exhibition at the Fabbrica del Vapore is just one instance of the overwhelming rise of female artists the world over. This rise led to a stronger desire to look at and understand the artists of the late 1960s, whose works – particularly in the US – heralded and accompanied women as they gained a voice all over the world, what we call feminism. And at the same time, “it shows in the work of art a subject created by women or men and no longer by a neutral artist” (Pasini).
A bookshop twinned with the one at 29, Via Pietro Calvi has been set up at the Fabbrica del Vapore, offering a selection of the bookshop’s titles, past and present.
Scheduled events during the Exhibition
Opening hours 6.30 pm – 9.00 pm
8 April 2019
Women’s research and public experience.
Adriana Albini – scientist
Chiara Bisconti – Manager and councilwoman
Anna Catasta – Politician and european planner
Chiara Zamboni – Philosopher
Artists:, Enrica Borghi, Paola Di Bello, Claudia Losi
15 April 2019
Me too, analysis of an epochal shift
Lia Cigarini – Libreria delle donne
Marisa Guarneri – Casa delle donne maltrattate
Luisa Muraro – Libreria delle donne
Artists: Elisabetta Di Maggio, Loredana Longo, Concetta Modica, Stefania Galegati
2 May 2019
Special event with Vandana Shiva
16 May 2019
Women doing business
Anna Scavuzzo, Deputy Mayor of Milan
Filippo del Corno, Milano 2020 – Councillor in charge for culture – Call for women’s creativity- Milan 2020
Daria Colombo, Milan Councilwoman for equal opportunities
Nonino Sisters, Entrepreneurs
Artists: Marina Ballo Charmet, Elena El Asmar, Eugenia Vanni
18-19 May 2019
The civilization is in the hands of women – Milan
Change of civilization. Art, work, women politics (mothers included)
Civilization is in the hands of women
27 May 2019
SIRKLING, video-Performance by Tori Wrånes
Works of art, art criticism
Emanuela De Cecco, Art critic and teacher
Manuela Gandini, Art critic and teacher
Francesca Pasini, Art critic and curator
Uliana Zanetti, curator of MAMbo
Artists: Marta Dell’Angelo, Elisa Sighicelli, Margherita Morgantin
3 June 2019 Finissage
The languages of women
Maria Attanasio, poet and writer
Donatella Di Pietrantonio, writer
Nadia Fusini, literary critic
Rosaria Guacci, Mirella Maifreda – Libreria delle donne di Milano
Artists: Bruna Esposito, Maria Morganti, Sabrina Mezzaqui, Annie Ratti
Guided tours will be held during the Exhibition period
