Biennale Donna, a historic event dedicated to contemporary female creativity promoted by UDI – Unione Donne in Italia(Women’s Union in Italy), this year marks its twentieth edition.
From 14 April to 30 June 2024 Palazzo Bonacossi in Ferrara will host Yours in Solidarity – Altre Storie tra Arte e Parola (Other Stories between Art and Words) curated by Sofia Gotti and Caterina Iaquinta, an exhibition bringing together installations, sculptures, performances and textile works created by six international women artists: Binta Diaw, Amelia Etlinger, Bracha L. Ettinger, Sara Leghissa, Muna Mussie and Nicoline van Harskamp.
The project sets out to highlight some of the aspects that have characterised the Ferrara event since its inception and at the same time to enhance its national visibility. The driving concept is to continue to bring women artists to the fore “from the background” while also presenting “a new arsenal of voices” ready to advocate for the need to rethink women’s presence within a world that has become increasingly complex and polarised. Alongside the artists’ works, a valuable selection of historical materials from UDI will be showcased, including archival documents, catalogues, leaflets, banners and photographs, retracing the Biennale’s milestones and evolution.
The title of the exhibition, Yours in Solidarity, is taken from the video by Dutch artist Nicoline van Harskamp. This work unfolds from a rich epistolary, which the artist later organised in a personal archive, produced by an international network of anarchists who in the 1980s and 1990s used to end their letters with the greeting “Yours in Solidarity”. These words, used to express closeness and solidarity within spaces of conflict, have the merit of creating a space open to exchange between different cultures, contexts, and genders. Individual stories surface, recounting both intimate and collective experiences; a critique of the structures of our society emerges, highlighting cultures that are rooted in a communal dimension even before than in a matriarchal one; reinterpretation of shared paths, collections and archives come to light, operating as necessary “reservoirs of memory”.
Like Van Harskamp’s video, the exhibition display is set on a dual perspective, that identifies the elaboration of a letter and the staging of an archive as the structures underpinning primary connections between human beings. Starting from an intimate first-person form of writing, we see an expansion of language in forms ranging from visual, to slogans, to documents affirming the power of affections that bind subaltern and rebellious subjectivities beyond genres and boundaries.
The exhibition Yours in Solidarity – Altre Storie tra Arte e Parola (Other Stories between Art and Words), is organised by the UDI Biennale Donna Committee – made up of Lola G. Bonora, Silvia Cirelli, Ada Patrizia Fiorillo, Catalina Golban, Elisa Leonini, Anna Quarzi, Ansalda Siroli, Dida Spano, Liviana Zagagnoni – and the Servizio Musei d’Arte of the Municipality of Ferrara, in collaboration with Fondazione Ferrara Arte, with the support of the Emilia-Romagna Region.
XX Biennale Donna
Yours in Solidarity
Altre Storie tra Arte e Parola (Other Stories between Art and Words)
Curated by Sofia Gotti and Caterina Iaquinta
Organised by
UDI – Unione Donne in Italia of Ferrara and the Museum Department of the Municipality of Ferrara in collaboration with Fondazione Ferrara Arte
Press preview
Saturday 13 April, 11.30 am
Opening
Saturday 13 April, 6.00 pm
Dates of the exhibition
14 April – 30 June 2024
Location
Palazzo Bonacossi
Via Cisterna del Follo 5, Ferrara
Opening hours
Tuesday to Sunday, 10.00 am – 1.00 pm / 3.00 pm – 6.30 pm
Also open 23 and 25 April, 1 May, 2 June