The Rietveld Academie's TXT and Fashion departments have invited researcher, curator, and writer Simone Frangi to give a lecture and workshop on the work of Italian philosopher Luciano Parinetto (1934-2001). Frangi's research focuses on how society assigns roles based on gender, sexuality, race, and class, in an intersectional perspective.
Workshop for students
On Monday 16 October 2023 Simone Frangi will give a workshop to Fashion and TXT students. Students from other departments are welcome to join. As the spaces are limited, please RSVP by 12 October via public@rietveldacademie.nl. The workshop is relevant for any student with an interest in intersectional thinking and practice, witch-hunting and/or gender studies (no prior knowledge needed).
The goal during the workshop is to take Parinetto's complex ideas (which touch on subjects like witches, devils, LGBTQ+ individuals, infertile or single women, disabled people, as well as marginalized groups like beggars, vagabonds, Roma, Sinti, and independence activists in newly formed nations) and turn them into tangible visual representations. This approach aims to make the theory more accessible and explore its ethical aspects. The workshop will be a collaborative effort, involving not only translating from Italian to English but also translating from text to physical objects, inspired by Parinetto's idea of alchemical transformation.
Lecture, open to all
On Tuesday 17 October at 17:00 hrs at the Theory Stairs, Frangi will give a lecture on Parinetto's thought that is open to all. Luciano Parinetto blended Freudian and Marxist thinking, analysed the connections between heteropatriarchy, colonialism, and practices like the witch-hunting of the different. He aimed to challenge a simplistic democratic view of equality and promoted a diverse, non-binary approach to freedom. He linked the historical persecution of witches in Europe to modern colonial genocides, emphasizing their political motives. Parinetto's work sheds light on the ongoing struggle for equality and diversity.
The project is supported by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture under the Italian Council program (12th edition, 2023), which aims to promote Italian contemporary art worldwide.
About
SIMONE FRANGI is a researcher, curator and writer. His research work develops at the intersection of critical thinking, curatorial research and educational practices with a special attention to normative attributions of gender, sexuality, race and class in an intersectional perspective.
Methodological axes in Frangi's projects are the use of theory as a form of direct action, visual studies as a site of critical struggle, the political function of cultural research, and the broadening of art criticism and art writing to social and political critique.
He holds a french-italian PhD in Philosophy (Aesthetics and Theory of Art), obtained in international co-tutoring at Université de Bourgogne - Dijon (FR) and Università Degli Studi di Palermo (IT) as well as a “Perfezionamento Filosofico” in Critical Theory of Society at Università degli Studi di Milano - Bicocca.
From 2013 to 2017 he has been artistic director of Viafarini – Non profit Organization for Contemporary Artistic Research (Milan, IT). He currently co-directs with Barbara Boninsegna Live Works – Free School of Performance (2013-ongoing), a residential platform for research and production in performance founded in 2013 Centrale Fies (Dro, Trento, IT). With the same institution he co-founded the Agitu Ideo Gudeta Fellowship, developed in dialogue with sociologist Mackda Ghebremariam Tesfau’ and artist Justin Randolph Thompson. Since 2014 he co-directs A Natural Oasis? a transnational biennial curatorial research program organized by Biennale de la Jeune Création Européenne et de la Méditerranée. Since 2013 he is Professor of Theory of Art and Visual Cultures at ESAD - University of Arts in Grenoble (FR), where he founded with Katia Schneller the Research Unit “Hospitalité Artistique et Activism Visuel: pour une Europe diasporique et post-occidentale”. In 2016 he was one of the ten curator of XVI Quadriennale of Rome, where he presented the curatorial project “Orestiade italiana” dedicated to the amnesia of Italian colonialism. In 2018 he was guest curator at Museion - Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Bozen (IT) where he organized the multidimensional project “Somatechnics. Transparent Travelers and Obscure nobodies”. In 2021 he was one of the senior curators of School of Waters - MEDITERRANEA19, in 2022 co-curator of “Screens. Screen culture and moving images” - XXVI edition of Premio Gallarate at MA*GA Gallarate e and nominator of MAXXI BVLGARI PRIZE 2022. In 2021 he was one of the tutors together with Antonia Alampi and Sara Buraya Boned of the program VERSO at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (Turin, IT) and he’s currently in the scientific committee of the European Project DE.a.RE - Deconstruct and Rebuild (2022-2024).
He's one of the recipients of the Italian Council Grants 2023-2024 for his research project "Bodies Revolution. Curatorial ethics and social justice starting from Luciano Parinetto".
Recent editorial project (selection): Colonialità e Culture Visuali in Italia, co-edited with Lucrezia Cippitelli (Mimesis, 2021); School of Waters. The Book, co-edited with Alessandro Castiglioni (Archive, 2021).
Image above: Salvatore Carbone, Disegni originali per L. Parinetto, La Traversata delle streghe nei nomi e nei luoghi, Antonio Pellicani Editore, Roma 1993
