Performance
Del maiale non si butta via niente
Performance of the series "La Cultura che Vive" by Romina De Novellis
Thursday 20 October 2022 • 11:00 AM
From 11am to 7pm
Jeu de Paume – Paris
The artist Romina De Novellis (Naples, 1982) revisits major works of arte povera from an ecofeminist perspective. She proposes to reinterpret and update certain themes and motifs of arte povera, in order to rethink, in resonance with this current, the relations between genders and between all living beings.
Del maiale non si butta via niente, 2022 (creation) [Of the pig we do not throw anything]
In response to Kounellis’ performance Untitled (Twelve Live Horses), 1969, De Novellis locks herself in a sow breeding cage. The control and mastery of the birth rate characterize intensive breeding and its economic profitability, a major stake of the agri-food industry. The female body is an object to be monitored, to be maintained with a view to productivity. In popular culture, the sacrifice of the pig is a popular festival that brings people together. De Novellis decides to lock herself up dressed as a woman-object, to show how our societies consume women’s bodies as well as animals’. She will regain her freedom at the end of the day. This action, both close and far from Kounellis’ performance, affirms a co-presence with the animal and, more generally, a new sensitivity towards the living.
LA CULTURA CHE VIVE, A SERIES OF PERFORMANCES
The artist Romina De Novellis revisits major works of arte povera in an ecofeminist perspective. She proposes to reinterpret and update certain themes and motifs of arte povera, in order to rethink, in resonance with this current, the relations between genders and between all living beings. Thus, consumerism, inequalities, the weight of the past and the resistance of living beings are all palpable concerns in her performances where the body of the female artist comes into play. In doing so, Romina De Novellis imagines a series of actions in resonance with the militant attitude and the use of simple materials of arte povera.
The proof is in the title, a tribute to the Italian artist and writer Ketty La Rocca, inspired by her collage, La cultura che non vive, created in 1964. The actions of Romina De Novellis reinvest certain attitudes of arte povera, with an affirmation of the female body, in an openly ecofeminist gesture. A way to remind that arte is a feminine word in Italian.
biography
Romina De Novellis (1982) is a performer, visual artist and researcher, born in Naples, raised in Rome and living in Paris since 2008. Trained as a dancer, she studies the body from an anthropological perspective through the prism of Mediterranean cultures.
The artist uses ecofeminist theories as a parameter to analyze and denounce the oppressive realities of our societies and the dichotomies of nature-humanity, femininity-masculinity, north-south, scientific-intuitive, power-body, establishment-counter-culture. Her intention is to highlight the reappropriation of feminine traits by women and men, in order to challenge dominant models.
Her works have been presented in many contexts, including MAC – VAL in Ivry-sur -Seine, Ca’ Pesaro International Modern and Contemporary Art in Venice, MADRE Museum in Naples, Poznan Biennial in Poland, Armory Show in New York, Villa Datris Foundation, Espace Louis Vuitton, Palais de Tokyo, Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature in Paris, among others.
In 2019, Romina De Novellis initiated an artist and researcher residency project called Domus Artist Residency, based in Galatina, Italy.
Romina De Novellis is represented by Galerie Alberta Pane – Paris/Venice.
practical information
In the exhibition rooms, free on presentation of the Jeu de Paume entrance ticket.