• Curated by Claudia D'Alonzo

    29.11.2019

    02.02.2020

In conjunction with the solo exhibition dedicated to Simone Forti, the Italo-American artist, choreographer and dancer, ICA Milano in collaboration with Fondazione Il Lazzaretto, presents in the project room the video-installation When the Towel Drops Vol 1 | Italy by the Radha May collective, composed by Elisa Giardina Papa, Nupur Mathur and Bathseba Okwenje. The installation, curated by Claudia D’Alonzo, investigates the censored representation of women, femininity, and sexuality in Italian post-war cinema. It compiles and reveals hundreds of archival documents and film scenes that were removed from publicly screened cinema in Italy in the 1950s and 1960s. By editing together scenes that were removed from films such as La Notte and Zabriskie Point by Michelangelo Antonioni, or Brink of Life by Ingmar Bergman, When The Towel Drops Vol 1 I Italy traces a history of the institutional regimentation of the female body and desire.

The exhibition is part of a further development of the project When the Towel Drops promoted by Fondazione Il Lazzaretto, in collaboration with Accademia G. Carrara of Bergamo, CODICI, and the media partners cheFare and Digicult. In May 2019, a group of fifteen participants took part in a workshop led by Radha May. This participative project has produced a new version of the performance When the Towel Drops Vol. 1 | Italy , which has been presented in November within theFestival della Peste!, taking place in the space of Il Lazzaretto.

When The Towel Drops Vol1 I Italy has been made possible by the generous support of: MiBACT - Direzione Generale per il Cinema, Italy; Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna, Italy; Fondazione Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia – Cineteca Nazionale, Italy; Italia Taglia, Italy; Creative Arts Council, Brown University; Italian Studies Department, Brown University.

 

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Radha May (Elisa Giardina Papa, Nupur Mathur, Bathsheba Okwenje) is an artist collective whose work explores forgotten and hidden histories, peripheral sites, and feminine myths. Radha May uses tools borrowed from anthropologists, historians and journalists to conduct their research. They work in the field, meticulously sifting through historical and social archives making what they find available to anybody; they also distill the material into fictional and surreal scenarios that complicate assumptions about history, borders and cultural and social formations such as gender and sexuality. Radha May is Elisa Giardina-Papa (Italy), Bathsheba Okwenje (Uganda), and Nupur Mathur (India). They collaborate and work between New York, Palermo, Gisovu, Kampala, and New Delhi.
www.radhamay.com

Radha May (Elisa Giardina Papa, Nupur Mathur and Bathsheba Okwenje) - When the Towel Drops, Vol 1 | Italy

Radha May (Elisa Giardina Papa, Nupur Mathur, Bathsheba Okwenje), When the Towel Drops, Vol 1 | Italy, 2015-2019. Still dal video. Scena censurata di ​Silvana Pampanini in Sete D’Amore, Alfonso Corona Blake (1956). Per gentile concessione delle artiste e MiBACT/ Radha May (Elisa Giardina Papa, Nupur Mathur, Bathsheba Okwenje), When the Towel Drops, Vol 1 | Italy, 2015-2019. Video still. Censored scene of ​Silvana Pampanini from Sete D’Amore, Alfonso Corona Blake (1956). Courtesy of the artists and MiBACT.

Radha May, When the Towel Drops Vol.1 Italy, 2018. Installation view, Institute for Contemporary Art (Fondazione ICA Milano), Milan, Italy, 2020. Courtesy of Radha May (Bathsheba Okwenje, Nupur Mathur, Elisa Giardina Papa)

Radha May, When the Towel Drops Vol.1 Italy, 2018. Installation view, Institute for Contemporary Art (Fondazione ICA Milano), Milan, Italy, 2020. Courtesy of Radha May (Bathsheba Okwenje, Nupur Mathur, Elisa Giardina Papa)

Radha May, When the Towel Drops Vol.1 Italy, 2018. Installation view, Institute for Contemporary Art (Fondazione ICA Milano), Milan, Italy, 2020. Courtesy of Radha May (Bathsheba Okwenje, Nupur Mathur, Elisa Giardina Papa)

Radha May, When the Towel Drops Vol.1 I Italy, 2018. Stills from the video. Courtesy of Radha May (Bathsheba Okwenje, Nupur Mathur, Elisa Giardina Papa)