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Chiara Fumai
Poems I Will Never Release, 2007–2017
Virtual tour and introduction video now on the 5th floor (digital extension)
In these uncertain times, The Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève is pleased to offer a virtual alternative to explore the exhibition Poems I Will Never Release, 2007–2017, the first retrospective dedicated to Italian artist Chiara Fumai (Rome, 1978–Bari, 2017).
Three years after the artist’s untimely death, a group of institutions has gathered around her estate in order to deepen her legacy and transmit her extraordinary work to a broader public. The exhibition originally intended for inauguration earlier in November has finally opened to the public on November 28, 2020. Due to the inevitable impact of the pandemic on accessibility, the Centre wishes to make Chiara Fumai’s exhibition as widely visible as possible so that those unable to travel can discover her work.
With its wide selection of artworks and documents, this retrospective aims to capture what Chiara Fumai loved to call her “unwork,” a ten-year performative production that goes well beyond the performances for which she was best known. The exhibition title is drawn from an unfinished sculpture, the artist’s last self-portrait: a puppet in a t-shirt with the motto “Poems I Will Never Release”. While the phrase might seem melancholic—evoking what might have been had the artist lived longer—it actually states a matter of fact. Fumai based her work on performing words written by others. She herself never composed poems; instead, she channeled the words of others, women who needed revenge and historical recognition. This retrospective is not only dedicated to Chiara Fumai but to those who came before her.
The exhibition is curated by Francesco Urbano Ragazzi and Milovan Farronato in collaboration with Andrea Bellini. It will be presented at Centro Pecci, Prato (Spring 2021), La Loge, Brussel (Autumn 2021) and La Casa Encendida, Madrid (2022).
The 360° visit is available in the Works section of the 5th floor, the digital extension of The Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève.
To prepare your virtual tour, watch our introduction video: Chiara Fumai or a glossary of Women. Directed and narrated by Sofia Kouloukouri (artist and mediator at the Centre), this video dives into the feminine figures who marked history and inspired Chiara Fumai. Despite their strength and anger, these women have been either marginalized or forgotten. Among many others, the bearded woman Annie Jones, the "Circassian beauty" Zalumma Agra, the German terrorist Ulrike Meinhof, the illiterate medium Eusapia Palladino, or the feminist writer Carla Lonzi—all punctuate the work of Fumai. Watch the video on the Words section of the 5th floor.
The first monograph of Chiara Fumai’s work accompanies the retrospective and will be published early 2021. The volume, published by Nero Editions, will include contributions by Irene Aristizábal, Andrea Bellini, Federico Campagna, Milovan Farronato, Gabriel Lester and Raimundas Malašauskas, Chus Martínez, Mara Montanaro, Paulina Olowska, Cristiana Perrella and Marcello Bellan, Francesco Urbano Ragazzi, and Giovanna Zapperi. It includes a chronology and bibliography by Sara De Chiara. The publication is supported by the Italian Council program (7th Edition, 2019) for promoting Italian contemporary art in the world by the Directorate/General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism.
