Genoa, Artemisia exhibition. Bonacossa: One must have the choice to enter the rape room. Gadgets eliminated

The exhibition dedicated to Artemisia Gentileschi currently underway at the Palazzo Ducale in Genoa is still causing discussion: in particular regarding the “rape room” that visitors are forced to pass through within the exhibition itinerary, without a desclaimer warning them of the presence of content considered strong, and regarding the morbid spectacularization of Artemisia’s rape that is carried out in the Genoese exhibition.

On this issue, Caterina Pizzimenti, activist of Non una di meno-Genova, and Ilaria Bonacossa, newly appointed director of Palazzo Ducale in Genoa, spoke on Popolare Network radio this morning.

Explaining that last week activists, scholars and associations, including Associazione Mi Riconosci?, UniGe Art History and Heritage Enhancement students, Non una di meno-Genova, wrote and signed an open letter addressed to Palazzo Ducale Fondazione per la Cultura, Genoa City Council and Liguria Region calling for the closure of the rape room and the removal from the bookshop of the gadgets with the quote “Io del mio mal ministro fui” by rapist Agostino Tassi and the book La notte tu mi fai impazzire. Erotic exploits of Agostino Tassi, painter, by Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, Caterina Pizzimenti, activist of Non una di meno-Genova states, "The letter was published last week. We reached 1,900 signatures this morning, not only from activists and people with expertise in art, but also from museum directors, professors, scholars.... it is a letter that touched different levels of culture and art knowledge. The most important demands are the closing of this immersive room with this set design that we think is really toxic and the removal from the bookshop of all gadgets with the self-exculpatory phrase of the rapist Agostino Tassi and the book La notte mi fai impazzire by Buttafuoco. The letter is going around so much, I think the signatures will reach 2,000 in this morning. We have also decided to organize a counter-narrative conference, on how exhibitions in general are set up, with this spectacularization of pain and rape, of discomfort, which will be held on March 16, also in Genoa at the Teatro della Tosse, which is hosting us and where there will be a lot of people from the world of art and culture."

Ilaria Bonacossa, newly appointed director of the Palazzo Ducale in Genoa, responded in this regard, “We have already eliminated the gadgets, also in agreement with Arthemisia, the exhibition’s organizing company, which has entrusted the curatorship of the exhibition to the curator who followed the project and defends its narrative. On the gadget with the phrase ”Io del mio mal ministro fui," which in the curator’s view is an admission of guilt and therefore makes sense, I think that putting a phrase of someone who committed violence against the protagonist of the exhibition becomes a claim. On the theme of the room we are working. I speak as the director of Palazzo Ducale and not according to what Ilaria Bonacossa likes, because I respect institutions and I don’t think it should become an ad personam place. It is true that the room recounts the rape, but the voices and the words are those of the trial, and in defense of this I say that the great 2020 exhibition on Artemisia Gentileschi at the National Gallery presented the whole trial and all the sentences related to the trial to contextualize Artemisia. However, it is also true that there is no disclaimer; telling this story should not become the only reason to look at Artemisia’s work. The audience should have a choice, whether to enter or not, and I think even the bed is perhaps a detail that does not add much to hearing the words of the trial. On the issue of the theatricalization of this story, certainly it is intentional and in the vision of the curator and Arthemisia it was to bring more attention to an issue of violence against women that is very topical and troubling today."

“Because it is an immersive room,” Bonacossa added, “curtains will be put up to make it somewhat enclosed and to have what is rightly asked for in the letter, an alert, a disclaimer declaring the presence of very strong content, which can also offend the public. The public should be able to decide to enter this space or not. Directly from the visitors, no comments came in, and in this regard I asked to put a point at the end of the exhibition to collect opinions on this. In my future program, however, there will be a less theatrical way of telling and less turning to biography when it comes to women artists.”

“It is very dangerous for a cultural project to be changed because it is asked for,” said director Ilaria Bonacossa when asked by the presenter why it is so difficult to disassemble this room. “In my opinion the institution has to listen; in this case I think these changes are important for the enjoyment of the exhibition. I also say that it is true that after that room there are ten rooms of Artemisia’s works where we look at her work, very beautiful canvases are presented. Perhaps in the panels this personal side of Artemisia the curator emphasizes it, however, the number of works and the opportunity to see so many works brought together of high quality does justice to the artist’s talent.”

Genoa, Artemisia exhibition. Bonacossa: One must have the choice to enter the rape room. Gadgets eliminated

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