From Palma Bucarelli to Marina Abramovic, from Tamara de Lempicka to Kiki, great art documentaries on women in Milan

The traditional appointment with Visions of Art, the popular film schedule of theSilvia Dell’Orso Association that brings great art cinema to everyone, returns to Milan. This year’s program, entitled The Disturbing Muses. The Other Half of Art, is moreover the only film event included in The Talents of Women, the 2020 schedule of cultural activities promoted by the Culture Department of the City of Milan. Visions of Art brings to Milan four free-entry events (at 4:30 p.m. on four successive Sundays in theMudec Auditorium, via Tortona 56, Milan, from Feb. 16 to March 8, 2020), for a calendar of 31 documentaries of great cinematic quality from 1926 to the present.

The review, conducted in collaboration with Mudec and the Municipality of Milan, reaches its ninth edition this year, and the purpose is always the same: to tell, with the effectiveness of the visual medium, how the ability to narrate issues related to our cultural heritage has changed over time using works chosen for their characteristics as serious documents of dissemination.

Edition number nine is curated by Paola Scremin and Micol Veller, and the theme will be precisely women: staging the stories of those (artist or architect, designer or art historian) who have left important traces of women’s talent in international cultural heritage.

It begins on Sunday, Feb. 16, with The Pioneers of the Avant-Garde: From Tamara de Lempicka and Benedetta Cappa Marinetti to Antonietta Raphael, a tale of women artists in action in the early 20th century who exalted femininity. A mark this, captured later, in original ways, by women such as Rama, Accardi, Fioroni and Bentivoglio, as well as by intrepid scholars such as Fernanda Wittgens and Palma Bucarelli. On the program: Tamara De Lempicka, excerpt from La cultura dell’occhio (7’), Italy, 1993 by Sandro Lai, directed by Annamaria Gerli © Rai Teche; Benedetta Cappa Marinetti, excerpt from Il futurismo in Sicilia (3’), Italy, 2012 by Salvo Cuccia © and courtesy CRICD; Raphael Mafai. Antonietta e le altre, (9’), Italy, 2013 by L. Correale and A. di Marco © Rai Teche; Torino; Una donna: Carol Rama, excerpt (18’), Italy, 1983, by E. Fenoglio © Rai Teche; Carla Accardi, Giosetta Fioroni, Mirella Bentivoglio (14’), Italy, 2017, by Federico Cataldi © and courtesy Va.Le. Cinematografica 78; I am Fernanda Wittgens. A Life for Brera (24’), Italy, 2018, edited by Daniela Annaro © and courtesy Associazione Chiamale Storie; Palma Bucarelli. Galleria d’Arte Moderna di Roma, excerpt from L’Approdo (8’), Italy, 1963 © Rai Teche.

On Sunday, Feb. 23, the theme will be Muses and Models. From Body to Performance: From Gala Dali to Kiki de Montparnasse and Lee Miller, inspiring muses capable of asserting their own fulfillment and careers by differentiating themselves from their peers. A history of the body exhibited with irony and playfulness by pop ladies Quant and Axell, a sexuality questioned by feminist Bertlmann, an identity shaped and recreated by Orlan and Vanessa Beecroft. On the program: Gala Dalí, excerpt from Dalí (6’), USA, 1987, by A. Low and G. Crossman; Kiki de Montparnasse and Lee Miller, excerpt from Man Ray, the Prophet of the Avant-Garde (14’) USA, 1997, by Mel Stuart; Mary Quant. Una donna un paese, excerpt (8’), Italy, 1972, by C. Lizzani © Rai Teche; Evelyn Axell. The Amazon of Pop Art, excerpt (9’), Belgium, 2000, by and © Jean Antoine; Senso and anagram (13’), Italy, 1970, by Ugo Rosselli © and courtesy Cineteca Bologna; Renate Bertlmann (Defloration in 14 Stations), (5’), Italy, 1977 by Mario Carbone © Mario Carbone Photographic Archive; Interview with Orlan, excerpt (2’), Italy, 1977, from TG3 Punto donna © Rai Teche; V B. Vanessa Beecroft excerpt (13’), Italy, 2003, © by and courtesy of Geri Morellini.

Architecture, a feminine noun is instead the theme of Sunday, March 1: In architecture and design, women have not had it easy, but when they have managed to emerge they have left important marks as we will hear from the voices of Cini Boeri, Gae Aulenti, Zaha Hadid, Maddalena de Padova, and Nathalie du Pasquier. The founder of Fai Giulia Maria Crespi, who has dedicated her life to defending the landscape, is no exception. On the program: Cini Boeri, Excerpt (6’) from Il designer, Inchiesta sulle professioni, Italy, 1974, by Milo Panaro and Fulvio Rocco © Rai Teche; Maddalena de Padova, Excerpt (6’), Italy, 1999, from Lezioni di design, by M. Malabruzzi, A. Del Gatto and S. Casciani, interview by Ugo Gregoretti © Rai Teche; Gae Aulenti. A station for Gae, excerpt (4’), Italy, 1981, from Tam Tam by Anna Maria Tatò © Rai Teche; Zaha Hadid. My Maxxi, my Italy, excerpt (6’), Italy, 2017, by Alessandro Giacobbe and Matteo Moneta © and courtesy SKY Arte; Nathalie du Pasquier, excerpt (17’), Italy, 2003, by Pino Corrias and Francesco Stasi, directed by Mario Zanot © and courtesy Cartiere Vannucci, Kasta; The Nature of Giulia Maria Crespi, (30’), Italy, 2007, from Magazine 2, by Antonello Aglioti © Rai Teche.

Finally, on Sunday, March 8, we will talk about Pairs of Aces; They live and work together, they are one, their names become brands: we use furniture designed by Ray and Charles Eames, admire the land art of Jeanne Claude and Christo, we are enchanted by the walls of Sten & Lex, and we are moved by the performances of Marina Abramovic and Ulay. We listen to Frida’s voice (perhaps) speaking lovingly of her Diego. On the program: Frida and Diego, unpublished (3’), Mexico, 1953 © Fonoteca Nacional de Mexico, recording attributed to the voice of Frida Kahlo; The World of Ray and Charles Eames, excerpt (20’), USA, 1955, by Horst Brandeburg © Rm Associates; Jeanne Claude and Christo (3’), Italy, 2016 © Hartburger blog; Umbrellas, excerpt (25’), USA, 1985, by Albert and David Maysles © and courtesy Maysles Film; Sten & Lex: Eyes to the Sky, excerpt (6’), Italy, 2015 © and courtesy Fabrizio Boni and Giorgio De Finis; Marina Abramovic and Ulay (3’), Italy, 2016 © Hartburger blog; Imponderabilia, excerpt (9’), Italy, 1977, by Mario Carbone © Mario Carbon Photographic Archive.

Pictured: Kiki de Montparnasse portrayed by Man Ray.

From Palma Bucarelli to Marina Abramovic, from Tamara de Lempicka to Kiki, great art documentaries on women in Milan

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