Benedetta Barzini on Beauty, Feminism, and the Politics of Visibility

In a wide-ranging interview on Artribune, feminist model and academic Benedetta Barzini challenges conventional notions of beauty, linking them to patriarchal control and consumer culture. Barzini, who began her career after being spotted by Vogue editor Consuelo Crespi and photographed by Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, and others, reflects on her time in New York meeting artists like Andy Warhol, Marcel Duchamp, and Salvador Dalí. She critiques the 'smoothness' of contemporary aesthetics, citing Byung-Chul Han's concept of the 'society of positivity,' and argues that true beauty involves pain and depth. Barzini, now a professor of fashion history and anthropology, discusses her son Beniamino Barrese's film 'La scomparsa di mia madre' and her own radical refusal to be reduced to an image. She invokes Carla Lonzi's idea of the 'Unexpected Subject' and the Guerrilla Girls' 1989 question about women's representation in museums. The interview, conducted by Stefania Gaudiosi, explores the invisibility of women's thought and art, the need to dismantle gender dualism, and the potential for a future of genuine liberation.