Paola Ugolini's Career Turn at an Artissima VIP Lunch

In October 2014, independent curator and critic Paola Ugolini was visiting Artissima in Turin. A last-minute change of plans led her to join a VIP group visiting the La Gaia collection in Busca, owned by the Viglietta couple. At a lunch for the group, she sat at a table with empty seats. A British gallerist and his friend asked to join. During conversation, he invited her to curate a show of women artists and performers at his London gallery. That exhibition, 'The Body As Language,' was a project Ugolini had been trying to realize in Italy for four or five years without success. The gallerist later became her life and work partner. Ugolini identifies this moment as the turning point in her career, enabling her to continue working on forgotten narratives and women artists.