Luisa Lorenza Corna Presents at The University of Copenhagen: The Work of Carla Lonzi

On 27 February, Dr. Luisa Lorenza Corna gave a lecture at the University of Copenhagen on the work of Carla Lonza.

Abstract:

In 1970, art critic and art historian Carla Lonzi abandoned art for separatist feminism. Together with the journalist Elvira Banotti and the artist Carla Accardi, she founded the first separatist, anti-authoritarian, and decentralized feminist group in Italy: Rivolta Femminile. Within Rivolta, Lonzi transformed her critique of art into a social critique of the post-fascist culture in which she lived and acted. Central to Rivolta’s activity was an editorial modelling of affinity groups all around Italy, which resulted in a myriad of texts within and against the current political order. Today, sexual, and reproductive rights are again at risk in Italy and internationally, while the remaining fragments of the bourgeois public sphere are at a tipping point between disintegration and neo-fascism. The proposal for this seminar is to undertake a social reading of Lonzi’s and Rivolta’s writings, which are currently discussed, republished, and translated internationally. How to translate Lonzi and Rivolta historically and politically?

This forum lecture follows the polyphonous model of Rivolta Femminile and consists of two joint presentations:

Luisa Lorenza Corna will analyse Lonzi’s controversial intervention on the legalization of abortion in 1978 alongside contemporary debate over technologically aided reproduction.

Frida Sandström will make a reading of Lonzi’s critique of art and sexuality from the point of view of the ‘unexpected.’ Outlining the anti-fascist critiques of the family in Italy in the 1970s and today, she will discuss Lonzi and Rivolta’s writing practice as a critique of representation, in the history of philosophy as well as within the nation-state.

Together, Luisa and Frida will discuss the necessity of social translation between contexts and concepts in times of crisis.

For more information about the event, click here.

For more information about VCRG member, Dr. Luisa Lorenza Corna, click here.