Le Nemesiache: Reclaiming Mythological Rituals

Synopsis

Le Nemesiache is the first monograph dedicated to the group of Neapolitan feminist and pacifist artists. Co-founded in 1970 by the visionary and multidisciplinary artist and writer Lina Mangiacapre, Le Nemesiache promoted an experimental artistic practice and a way of being in the world rooted in feminism, mythology, folk tales, science fiction, and radical imagination, while also introducing the concept of “transfeminism” as early as the early 1980s. Over the course of a long-lasting practice spanning several decades, the group recovered an androgynous mythosophy in order to transcend art understood as mere representation and to challenge the feminine as a modern identity category. Their transformative approach, distinctive within the history of Italian and Western feminist art, led not only to the development of an interdisciplinary practice, including: cinema, performance, writing, rituals, poetry, music, collage, costumes, protests, and conferences, but also to the creation of a new political language grounded in a cosmological creativity and in an idea of justice enacted through mythological rituals.

Autrice

Sonia D’Alto is a writer, curator, and lecturer. She is a practice-based PhD candidate at HFBK Hamburg and Lecturer in Curatorial Studies at KASK in Ghent. She has collaborated with institutions across Europe, including AWARE (Paris), Frame (Helsinki), de Appel (Amsterdam), ifa Gallery (Berlin), Museo Madre (Naples), the Venice Biennale, the documenta Institute (Kassel), and Marea Art Project.

Her research investigates alchemical imaginaries, cosmo-poetic languages, and ecofeminist aesthetics in order to rethink the genealogies of art history. Through moving images, performative formats, and archival research, she explores the intersections between superstition and modernity, popular narratives, and hegemonic power.

She has published in e-flux Journal, Flash Art, Mousse, and Critique d’Art. She was curator at ComoArte Foundation and co-founder of the platform Casa dei Saperi at Fondazione Pini (Milan).

The book is edited by Sonia D’Alto with texts and contributions by Chiara Bottici, Federica Bueti, Cairo Clarke, Sonia D’Alto, Giulia Damiani, Giusi Palomba, Imma Tralli and Roberto Pontecorvo of Marea Art Project, Elvira Vannini, Giovanna Zapperi, and Arnisa Zeqo.