The invisibility cloak

2017

The book presents my project entitled Invisible inVisible, which consists of a series of site-specific artworks (installations) that I have presented in public spaces, in the urban landscape or on abandoned buildings. I have also referred to my previous artistic activities, which influenced the shape of this project. The starting point for a series of artworks presented within the frame of this project, are women who are related to the history of a particular city, district or region. The basis of the project is the stories of these women, who have become forgotten or erased from collective memory. However, they are important from the perspective of contemporary discourses, including ethnic diversity, gender, feminism or exclusion. Invisible inVisible is a complex project which not only consists of site-specific artworks in public spaces but also includes performances, panel discussions, video artworks, exhibitions, a website and photographic and video documentation. Installations located in abandoned places (site-specific artworks) form the main medium of my artistic expression.These works are closely connected to the architecture, specifically with the use of abandoned houses or other things that have ceased to fulfil their former functions but for which a new use has not yet been found. Such places seem to be mysterious, sometimes dangerous, but for many passers-by they become 'transparent' or simply irritate them with their incompatibility with other elements of the environment in a sense of aesthetics. The Invisible inVisible project is a result of several years of artistic research conducted from a feminist perspective, resulting from my position in culture and social discourses as a woman artist. Initially, my research concerned the gallery space and then developed to work in the public space into which I 'inscribed' the traces of female narratives.

Sonia Chabbi, 2015

This thesis analyzes the role that women's art plays in the museum and could play in a woman's valorization process as an artist, curator or director of an exhibition. Through the analysis of the cultural context in which the female art is developed and borned, it will focus first on the perception that it had in the historical and artistic context and the various forms of thought. From here there will highlight a paradigm: “Are feminism and the museum as we know it compatible at any level?”. It will follow, at this point, the analysis of three case studies in the European reference museum context: the Frauenmuseeum in Bonn, the Museo della Donna of Merano and Microstories Women: Analysis of art exhibitions in the panorama of Bosnia and Herzegovina local area. By analyzing the different relationships between museums and feminine art and the role played by women, it will try to answer a question, namely relational between the museum and the female art as such. Finally, it highlight the relationships among the three different museums and women's art, the possible contributions that education and gender training processes can offer to the museum and back again, especially for the "thought reform" needed to change. The ultimate aim is to ensure a useful analysis for a rapprochement between art and revaluation of women in museums. Keywords: museums, female art, curating, displaying art, cultural background, local.

2018

‘He even painted things that cannot be represented ...’, Pliny eulogized Apelles in his Naturalis historia. ‘How can we with mortal eyes contemplate this image whose celestial splendour the host of heaven presumes not to behold?’, asks a Byzantine hymn dedicated to the celebrated Image of Edessa. Cennino Cennini, in the first chapter of his Libro dell’arte, writes that painting ‘...calls for imagination, and skill of hand, in order to discover things not seen, hiding themselves under the shadow of natural objects, and to fix them with the hand, presenting to plain sight what does not actually exist.’ In her 1949 essay Some memories of Pre- dada: Picabia and Duchamp, Gabrielle Buffet-Picabia tried to summarise the art of her era: ‘It would seem ... that in every field, the principal direction of the 20th century was the attempt to capture the “nonperceptible”.’ Art has been preoccupied with the invisible before, between, and beyond these disparate yet kindred statements. One of artists’ greatest challenges is and has been representing the invisible subject, in its many guises. Artists working in media based on perception, such as painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, and installation, must devise strategies to visualise the invisible: It is a foundational paradox of art. Art of the Invisible investigates artistic strategies for the invisible, across disciplinary, chronological, geographical, and medial boundaries. This interdisciplinary conference brings together a variety of speakers to examine the problems and strategies for visualising the invisible, providing answers across these boundaries.

African Arts, 2008

Novecento Transnazionale. Letterature, Arti E Culture, 2021

The Covid-19 pandemic has aggravated the pre-existing crisis of the blockbuster exhibition model. On their search of alternatives, many of the world’s major art galleries have turned their gaze towards a critical reassessment of their collections from a gender perspective. The exhibition Invitadas (Prado Museum, Madrid, October 2020-March 2021) is a good case study of these attempts. However, its reception has not been what the Prado expected: the exhibition has provoked anger and disappointment, and feminist art historians have been extremely critical with it. This article analyses the reception of Invitadas, extracting lessons for other museums willing to explore the gender perspective as an alternative to the blockbuster exhibition model.