Radha May on Censorship and Gender in Postwar Italian Cinema at ICA Milano

The collective Radha May presents 'When The Towel Drops Vol 1 | Italy' at ICA Milano's project room, curated by Claudia D'Alonzo. The project explores censorship and the depiction of women in postwar Italian cinema. The collective formed in New York in 2012, driven by interests in gender, power, archives, and minority narratives. They accessed the Italian film censorship archive at the Cineteca di Bologna in 2014, digitizing censored scenes from about 6,000 films. Their research revealed that the true taboo was the male body, not the female; men remained fully clothed while women were scantily clad. Notable findings include a censored birth scene in Ingmar Bergman's 'Brink of Life' (1958) and a dolphin birth scene they couldn't locate. A workshop in Milan in May 2019 led to a performance at Il Lazzaretto in November, where participants read from censorship dossiers. The collective notes that censorship often regulated 'excess'—e.g., 'excessively loose clothing' or 'excessively lascivious' kisses—but outright banned films like 'The Killing of Sister George' (1968) for lesbian themes. Their methodology borrows from anthropology, historiography, and journalism, with research spanning two years. Future volumes will focus on Indian censorship post-independence and South Africa during apartheid. The installation at ICA projects censored scenes onto walls, accompanied by ministerial dossiers, emphasizing the archival context over spectacle.