Giulia Andreani's 'Intermezzo' at VNH Gallery

Giulia Andreani's project 'Intermezzo' at VNH Gallery in Paris, from March 17 to April 28, 2018, is not an exhibition but a state of current research. The works were created before, during, and after a 2017 residency at a maternal center in the Paris suburbs, where she conducted workshops with isolated young mothers and painted on site. The large-format painting 'Les Guerillères' was painted surrounded by these mothers, whose faces inform the soldiers' visages. The original image is a military parade in Cuba celebrating Castro's anniversary in the 2000s. Andreani recontextualizes it to suggest both the pressure on mothers to conform and a counter-reading of armed, independent women resisting societal oppression. The title references Monique Wittig's 1969 feminist novel. The project addresses women's roles in society, representation in multicultural art history, and women artists' erasure and resurgence. Portraits of Frida Kahlo as a child and Virginie Despentes appear, with Despentes linked to Egyptian queen Hatshepsut, whose legacy was erased via damnatio memoriae until 19th-century excavations. Andreani creates friction between powerful women across time, constructing new models and highlighting history's male-centric rewriting. The work aims to deconstruct superficial readings through complex, referenced homages tied to empowerment.