Ceramic plates smashed in protest against domestic violence

Artists Silvia Levenson and Natalia Saurin have concluded their three-act project 'Il luogo più pericoloso' (The Most Dangerous Place) with a video performance in which ceramic plates bearing phrases that minimize domestic violence—such as 'mia o di nessuno' (mine or no one's), 'ti picchio ma ti amo' (I beat you but I love you), and 'è stato un raptus' (it was a fit of rage)—are shattered. The project was inspired by a 2018 UN report finding that the most dangerous place for women is their own home: of 87,000 women killed worldwide that year, 58% were murdered by partners or family members. The plates were first exhibited in 2019 at the Museo del Novecento in Florence on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. In 2020, a planned exhibition in the courtyard of Palazzo Reale in Milan was canceled due to the pandemic; instead, the artists, curator Antonella Mazza, and other women were photographed in Piazza Duomo holding the plates. The final act, supported by the Municipality of Milan, is a video displayed on Urban Vision screens in Rome and Milan. The performance critiques media language that often blames victims or justifies perpetrators, as activist Nadia Somma of the Demetra anti-violence center notes: 'Revealing male or patriarchal violence instead of talking about raptus, passion, or jealousy can make the difference between women's death or life, between inequity and justice.'