i Am A Piece of wall PaPer
i Am A Piece of pAPer
i Am A Piece of pAPerboArd
A Piece of cArdboArd
A … cArtriDge
And must be… fiiiiiiiired!!
BOOM …!!1
Boom indeed, or maybe Binga! In the poem io sono una carta (I Am A Piece of plain Paper), Bianca Pucciarelli Menna, alias Tomaso Binga, doesn’t paper over anything. The very opposite: here language and performative installations reveal the emergence of a certain subjectivity, the invention of language of her own to challenge the patriarchal society of 1970s Italy.
In the work of Tomaso Binga (b. 1931 in Salerno, lives and works in Rome), defiance is both a statement and a form of action, notably with her decision in 1971 to adopt a male pseudonym as a parody of the privileges that men enjoy in society in general and in the art world in particular. Her conceptual and visual practice embraces collage, assemblage, poetry, painting as well as performance. Her textual works oscillate expertly between experimental writing and visual research and place her among the leading figures of Italian phonetic and performative sound poetry.
Tomaso Binga’s first solo exhibition in France, “Corps – poésie,” spans several decades and themes—identity and gender, social critique, the reappropriation of language and the manifestation of the body—and includes previously unseen works. By interacting with and questioning the residential setting of the art centre, “Corps – Poésie” is testament to the importance and vitality of a unique body of work in today’s artistic, social and political context.
Curated by:
Marc Bembekoff
at La Galerie, centre d’art contemporain de Noisy-le-Sec
until December 16, 2023