2023
Site-specific performance by Marta Lodola, duration 2 hours for 2 consecutive days. Materials: 300m red wool, nard oil, a whip
The female body is at the centre of the paradox: the male gaze wants it to adhere to the parameters of the ‘ideal body’ (a model imposed by what sexual attractiveness should be, vigorously stimulated by, among other things, consumer society1), parameters which, however, do not correspond to what the body actually is in nature. By subverting the canon of the pictorial female nude, which has almost always centred on the undressing of women (from Praxiteles, to Roman frescoes, to Titian Venuses, through Impressionism and throughout the 20th century2), the artist conveys the re-appropriation of her autonomy by dressing.
Aware of the spread of the iconographic power through the ages, Lodola offers us a contemporary version of Susanna, so often undressed and harassed by the Elders3.
In her performance, the artist progressively wraps her body with red wool, charging it with energy and mystical significance: the wool becomes like a second skin, an instrument of elevation towards self-empowerment and a means of de-colonisation from the male gaze. Lodola reclaims the colour as a symbol of paradox4: red represents sensuality and danger. Red wool is a material that has a strong connection with feminine skills: the slow, relentless movement of dressing requires care, patience, determination.
1 On the link between the objectification of women and consumerism, see The Beauty Myth, by Naomi Wolf, Tlon, 2022; and Women’s Body, a 2009 documentary by Lorella Zanardo.
2 The exception that proves the rule is represented by one of the rare examples of ‘dressing’ in the history of art: the mysterious case of the Maya Desnuda (painted by Goya between 1790 and 1800) and the Maya Vestida (painted between 1800 and 1808).
3 Susanna and the Elders is an iconographic theme inspired by the homonymous biblical episode narrated in chapter 13 of the Book of Daniel, frequently revisited in painting from the second half of the 15th century to the end of the 18th century. Among others, the paintings by Pinturicchio, Lotto, Tintoretto, Veronese, Rubens, Reni, Rembrandt and Artemisia Gentileschi are well-known. The visual interpretations of the biblical theme diverge widely in the pictorial-emotional representation of the fact, making it a debated topic and a cause for discussion, both on an artistic-historical and psychological-psychoanalytical level.
4 The artist seems to refer to the dual nature of the Virgin in the iconography of ancient and modern art: painters who wished to emphasise her human nature dressed her in red under her traditionally ultramarine blue mantle (a colour used instead to symbolise her celestial nature).
ph Antonella Fuentes