1970s Feminisms at the Venice Biennale

Abstract

This paper challenges the prevailing view that Materializzazione del linguaggio (Materialization of Language, 1978), curated by Mirella Bentivoglio, was the first all-women show at the Venice Biennale. By integrating previous studies on the Spazio aperto (Open Space) venue and archival findings on earlier feminist projects – including film screenings and theater events in 1974, and an unrealized exhibition on feminism planned for 1976 – this paper argues for a more complex understanding of feminist interventions at the Biennale in the 1970s. The paper highlights connections to a transdisciplinary and transnational history of feminisms as well as the case studies’ fraught relationship with leftist movements. Can an intersectional lens that considers aspects of social position alongside gender, help expand our understanding of the «exhibitionary complex,» prompting a rewriting of established narratives?

Keywords
Intersectionality, Venice Biennale, Feminism, Exhibitions