Milan, M77 gallery dedicates an exhibition to Giosetta Fioroni with 50 worksq

From Oct. 2 to Dec. 21, 2024, Milan ’s M77 gallery is hosting the Speculum exhibition dedicated to Giosetta Fioroni, one of the most important figures in Italian contemporary art. Curated by Cristiana Perrella in collaboration with the Goffredo Parise and Giosetta Fioroni Foundation, the exhibition presents about 50 works spanning the long career of the Roman artist (born 1932). The title of the exhibition is a reference to Luce Irigaray’s famous essay, Speculum. The Other Woman, and alludes to the need for an autonomous and conscious representation of the female world.

The exhibition is organized into three sections that explore the theme of the gaze and the representation of femininity. The first section is entitled GUARDARE and includes the celebrated works from the Argenti series, created in the 1960s, in which Fioroni uses aluminum enamel to create delicate, almost evanescent female images. In these works, silver becomes a means of dematerializing the figures, which emerge as distant apparitions. The section also includes three short 16mm films that reflect on the female gaze. The second section, LOOKING, displays several self-portraits by the artist, covering various moments in her career. From Self-Portrait at Seven (1971-72), to more recent works such as Old Age, Helplessness (1998) and the photographic series Senex (2002), Fioroni reflects on his own image and the passage of time. Finally, the third section, BEING LOOKED AT, features photographic portraits of Fioroni taken by great photographers such as Mario Dondero, Ugo Mulas and Elisabetta Catalano. These images, which trace a kind of visual biography, represent another outside look at the artist and the female subject.

The exhibition explores Fioroni’s vision of femininity, which the artist has always interpreted freely and outside traditional canons. While not militant, his work has always affirmed a feminine difference, self-determined and independent of male models. Famous in this regard is her installation The Optical Spy (1968), where a young woman is observed by viewers through a peephole, a symbol of the criticality with which society scrutinizes and judges the feminine. The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalog published by M77, with critical texts by Cristiana Perrella and a rich photographic documentation including archival images.

Image: exhibition set-up. Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri

Milan, M77 gallery dedicates an exhibition to Giosetta Fioroni with 50 worksq

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