Dior Talks – Feminist Art Paola Ugolini on the increasing visibility of feminist art

Discover the latest Dior Talks episode featuring Paola Ugolini, a pioneering and truly fascinating figure on the Italian feminist art scene and close friend of Maria Grazia Chiuri.

This third episode of the ‘Feminist Art’ series focuses on Paola Ugolini, an independent curator and critic.

She has curated the Dior-sponsored “Io dico Io – I say I” at the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rome, a major exhibition devoted to the work of Italian feminist artists, running from March 24 to June 21, 2020.

Born and based in Rome, Paola Ugolini experienced the turbulent decade of the 1970s in the Italian capital as a teenager. With demonstrations a seemingly daily occurrence, she was exposed to political and, more importantly, feminist activism at a formative moment, which shaped her view of art as a powerful means of expression.

A close friend of Maria Grazia Chiuri, the tradition of feminist theory and art has been an integral part of her work. From her fascination with performance and body art to embroidery and video, the mediums embraced by women to self-represent and make their voices heard have gone from once being highly experimental to now being part of the mainstream. An important part of her role, as she sees it, is to bring such work, and the messages it contains, to a new generation of women, and men.

In an absorbing and enlightening exchange, she chats with Katy Hessel, a writer, curator and art historian, at the Palais de Tokyo Contemporary Art Museum in Paris.

Credits © Courtesy of Christian Dior Couture Pr