Lea Vergine on Body Art, Gender, and Avant-Garde Women

In an interview with Artribune, critic Lea Vergine discusses her seminal book on Body Art, arguing it was an avant-garde phenomenon of the 1970s and early 1980s, now exhausted, rather than a specifically female mode of expression. She cites male artists like Günter Brus, Giuseppe Chiari, and Gilbert & George alongside female pioneers Gina Pane and Katharina Sieverding. Vergine reflects on her landmark exhibition 'L'altra metà dell'avanguardia' (1910-1940), which highlighted women artists as 'genial experimenters' and 'audacious emblems of an articulated human condition,' many of whom were Jewish, homosexual, or touched by madness. She laments that subsequent research on women's roles in art has been minimal and confused. Among younger generations, she finds interest in Tania Bruguera, Monica Bonvicini, and Marzia Migliora. Vergine praises poet Mariangela Gualtieri's view that art transcends gender, and characterizes Carla Lonzi's retreat from art criticism as a personal, psychologically troubled choice. The interview was published in Artribune Magazine #35.