Re-Materialization of Language. 1978–2022 represents the first attempt at a philological reconstruction of the seminal exhibition Materializzazione del linguaggio, while simultaneously re-activating and re-contextualizing its historical themes in the present.

Long overlooked, the 1978 exhibition, curated by Mirella Bentivoglio and dedicated to the verbo-visual explorations of eighty international women artists across diverse materials and practices, both individual and collective, marked a belated reintegration of women’s and feminist art practices within an edition of the Biennale di Venezia that was not yet fully aware of their significance.

Featuring Annalisa Alloatti, Mirella Bentivoglio, Cathy Berberian, Tomaso Binga, Irma Blank, Monica Bonvicini, Irma Boom, BRACHA (Bracha L. Ettinger), Blanca Calparsoro, Françoise Canal, Matilde Cassani, Paula Claire, Rochella Cooper, Betty Danon, Sonia Delaunay, Agnes Denes, Chiara Diamantini, Neide Dias de Sá, Lia Drei, Janie Van Den Driessche, Anna Esposito, Amelia Etlinger, Sylvie Fauconnier, Maria Ferrero Gussago, Mona Fillières, Gisela Frankenberg, Luisa Gardini, Ilse Garnier, Rimma Gerlovina, Natalia Goncharova, Pat Grimshaw, Bohumila Grögerová, Shasha Guiga, Elisabetta Gut, Micheline Hachette, Ana Hatherly, Annalies Klophaus, Janina Kraupe, Christina Kubisch, Ketty La Rocca, Katalin Ladik, Maria Lai, Liliana Landi, Sveva Lanza, Paola Levi Montalcini, Laura Marcheschi, Lucia Marcucci, Benedetta Marinetti, Silvia Mejía, Gisella Meo, Aurèlia Muñoz, Giulia Niccolai, Anna Oberto, Anésia Pacheco e Chaves, Anna Paci, Anna Paparatti, Jacqueline Phanelleux, Jennifer Pike, Marguerite Pinney, Betty Radin, Regina (Cassolo Bracchi), Ol’ga Rozanova, Giovanna Sandri, Anne Sauser-Hall, Evelina Schatz, Mira Schendel, Greta Schödl, Eleanor Schott, Berty Skuber, Mary Ellen Solt, Marlise Staehelin, Varvara Fyodorovna Stepanova, Wendy Stone, Chima Sunada, Jacqueline Tarkieltaub, Salette Tavares, Biljana Tomić, Jean Trevor, Nora Turato, Carla Vasio, Tatiana Vladimirova Vechorka, Patrizia Vicinelli, Florence Villers, Simona Weller, Francine Widmer.

Produced on the occasion of the eponymous exhibition at FM Centre for Contemporary Art, Milan, from 4 April–26 May, 2019. The Unexpected Subject. 1978 Art and Feminism in Italy recounts the Seventies as a key phase in the history of Italian art of the 20th century, during which the spread of feminist thinking stimulates a new critical awareness that encourages many female artists, curators and art historians to rethink their role in society, life and art.

With works by Tomaso Binga, Irma Blank, Hanne Darboven, Agnes Denes, Chiara Diamantini, Amelia Etlinger, Maria Ferrero Gussago, Simone Forti, Sanja Iveković, Joan Jonas, Ketty La Rocca, Katalin Ladik, Maria Lai, Marisa Merz, Carol Rama, Mira Schendel, Carolee Schneemann, Eleanor Schott, Mariuccia Secol, Mary Ellen Solt, Biljana Tomić amongst others.

Women in Concrete Poetry: 1959–1979 is an expansive anthology focused on concrete poetry written by women in the groundbreaking movement’s early history. It features 50 writers and artists from Europe, Japan, Latin America, and the United States selected by editors Alex Balgiu and Mónica de la Torre.

The works in this volume evolved from previous manifestations of concrete poetry as defined in foundational manifestos by Öyvind Fahlström, Eugen Gomringer, and the Brazilian Noigandres Group. While some works are easily recognized as concrete poetry, as documented in canonical anthologies edited by Mary Ellen Solt and Emmett Williams in the late ’60s, it also features expansive, serial works that are overtly feminist and often trouble legibility.

Artists and writers include; Ana Bella Geiger, Mira Schendel, Mirella Bentivoglio, Tomaso Binga, Ilse Garnier, Mirtha Dermisache, Mary Ellen Solt, Susan Howe, Liliane Lijn, Hannah Weiner, Irma Blank, Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt, Chima Sunada, Katalin Ladik amongst others. Designed by Scott Ponik.