Bologna: Ex Ospedale degli Innocenti – Add Fire - Premio
Furla 2013. Established in 2000, and conceived and curated by Chiara Bertola,
the Premio Furla aims to support the finest artistic efforts in Italy by
monitoring, selecting and training new artists, and facilitating the production
of new works. Five Italian curators, each backed by a foreign guest curator,
selected the five finalists artists, which are on show, until February 6, in
the monumental building of the Ex Ospedale degli Innocenti in the center of town.
The title of the exhibit, the ninth so far, is Add Fire, Jimmi Durham, patron
artist of the 2013 Premio Furla, who specially created the logo.
Above: Installation by winner Chiara Fumai, Chiara Fumai
Legge Valerie Solanas or Chiara Fumai reads Valerie Solanas.
Add Fire - Premio Furla 2013: And the winner is…. Chiara Fumai. In Chiara
Fumai Legge Valerie Solanas, the writer Valerie Solanas (1936-1988) partly
takes over the body and voice of Chiara Fumai to recite together with her,
excerpts from the SCUM Manifesto in its original language of English. Written by Solanas in 1967, the purpose of
the manifesto was to demonstrate the inferiority of men, and it consequently
became a criticism of women who behave submissively towards men.
Add Fire - Premio Furla 2013 – Chiara Fumai. To explain
Solanas’ main arguments from a scientific and objective point of view, Fumai
creates a diagram containing video performance reminiscent of a declaration of
war or an announcement to enter politics.
Add Fire - Premio Furla 2013 – Chiara Fumai. The diagram allows you to distance yourself
from the contents of the manifesto, per se, instead of focusing on the breadth
of its message. Tragic, but at the same
time comical, the work examines the function of language and its subversive
capabilities.