Ci chiedono di essere madri come se non lavorassimo e di lavorare come se non fossimo madri
A conversation between Fatima Bianchi and Giulia Maria Falzea
27.10.2023, h 18.30
KORA - Centro del Contemporaneo, Castrignano de' Greci (LE)
Hosted by the KORA - Centro del Contemporaneo in Castrignano de’ Greci spaces: "Ci chiedono di essere madri come se non lavorassimo e di lavorare come se non fossimo madri” (We’re expected to be mothers as if we weren't workers and to be workers as if we weren't mothers), a conversation between Fatima Bianchi, artist, and Giulia Maria Falzea, writer, on the different possible ways of experiencing motherhood.
“Women don't have a natural instinct to take care of children, much less a universal urge to have them. Maternal love isn't a gift. It's a human feeling and like all feelings it is uncertain, fragile and imperfect.” Elisabeth Badinter
On Friday 27 October h 18.30, prompted by this quote, the conversation aims to investigate the different expression modes that can be achieved through moving images, medium of choice for Fatima Bianchi, and through writing, employed by Giulia Maria Falzea to convey a theme that is still, in this day and age, considered taboo. How can we describe and change the situation of mothers and the way they are considered, pushing away from a single vision built over centuries by the patriarchal society? How can we build the image of a mother that matches the needs and feelings of every woman?
The starting point for this conversation is the project-in-progress by Fatima Bianchi, winner of the Italian Council (11th edition, 2022), which KORA - Centro del Contemporaneo and Ramdom have a cultural partnership with. The project is an attempt to represent and give the floor to women who may experience motherhood in an ambivalent way, not excluding the possibility of them regretting becoming mothers, despite loving their children.
In addition to the public event, on Saturday 28 October, a workshop led by Fatima Bianchi and structured like a “discussion group” will be held. During the event, we will tackle themes that will tie in with the image of women and mothers, facing all the struggles of daily life, in relation to society and collective impositions. A series of testimonies by other women will be presented and the participants will be able to read them and comment on them based on their own lived experiences.
FATIMA BIANCHI
Fatima Bianchi is a director at the crossroads between documentary films and video art. In her project she aims to create new narratives based on different forms of temporality and uses reality as a starting point to generate a new documentary style that escapes representation. Her experimental approach is founded on the perception of recollection in order to create a sensitive vision towards the world. In addition to her director work, she can also be found working on several movies as an editor.
Born in Como in 1981, she graduated at the Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti in Milan in 2008 and has been living and working in France since 2015. Her movies and installations have been exhibited at several festivals and galleries, including Visions du Réel (SWITZERLAND), Cinéma Vérité Teheran (IRAN), Open City Documentary (GB), Kinopanorama Roma (ITALY), ZagrebDox (CROATIA), Filmmaker Festival (ITALY), Mediterranea 18 Young Artist Biennale (TIRANA), Centre Centre d'Art Contemporain de Briançon (FRANCE), Les Instants Vidéo (FRANCE), Fondazione Merz, Turin (ITALY), Spazio Forma, Milano (ITALY), Galleria Glogauair, Berlino (GERMANY). Thanks to her movie Notturno she was selected at the Settimana Internazionale della Critica of the 73rd Biennale di Venezia. Her prizes and nominations include: first prize at the Filmmaker Festival, first prize at the Fondazione Libero Bizzarri, finalist for the Premio Arte Contemporanea Premio Fabbri.
GIULIA MARIA FALZEA
Born in the South of Apulia, she has worked for the newspaper “la Repubblica” in Bari and for the Teatro Morena in Lecce. She has written theater plays such as “Gul. Uno sparo nel buio”, supervised by Giancarlo de Cataldo, “L’abito della festa”, performed by Théâtre de Girandole of Paris, “L’io minimo. Operetta elettronica per contentarsi di sè”, produced by TRAC Puglia, and “S-madonne”, performed by ZeroMeccanico Teatro. She and Claudia Gori are co-authors for “Anatomia dei Sentimenti”. Other works can be found on “Secret Garden” (Danilo Montanari Editore), “Musa e Getta” (Ponte alle Grazie) and other specialised magazines. She writes artistic projects with different realities: Ura Teatro and CoolClub. One of her short stories can be found in the anthology “Oltre il velo del reale. L'avventura dei racconti continua” (Meridiano Zero Edizioni), which collects all the texts selected by the Premio Italo Calvino 2022. She has an unwavering faith in pasta al dente, three cats and a musician husband. “I Cannibali” (Giulio Persone Editore) is her first novel.
ITALIAN COUNCIL
Fatima Bianchi’s project is the winner of Italian Council (11th edition, 2022), a program for the international support and promotion of contemporary Italian art by the Direzione Generale Creatività Contemporanea (DGCC) for the Ministry of Culture.
The project is sponsored by Careof in collaboration with Le Cube (Rabat, Morocco), cultural partnership by Films Femmes Méditerranée (Marseille), Ramdom (Lecce), Zeit (Cagliari).
This video work will become part of the collections of MART in Rovereto.