Sunday, 16 March 2025, 11 a.m.
Postcolonial perspectives on languages.
Mackda Ghebremariam Tesfau’, researcher, dialogs with Invernomuto
Casa Cavazzini, Modern and Contemporary Art Museum, Udine
On the last day of the exhibition’s opening, the public program around the exhibition event Come costruisci le immagini dell’altro? (How do you construct images of the other?) open to the public at Casa Cavazzini from last Dec. 13 to March 16, 2025, closes with a dialogue between Invernomuto and Mackda Ghebremariam Tesfaú.
The encounter, aimed at activating a post-colonial reflection on visual and verbal languages, will start with the work in the exhibition by Invernomuto MALÙ – The Stereotype of the Black Venus in Italy [censored], 2015 (HD Video, color, sound, 30′ 8”). Starting from the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, passing through the exhibitions of the so-called “Hottentot Venus” in the 19th century, but also through Fascist colonialism in Abyssinia, Italian cinema and television from the 1960s onward, and then arriving at the “Rubygate” scandal, the work analyzes the construction of the image of the black female body in Italian society. Through critical editing, Invernomuto returns these images in the form of a video essay that highlights the perpetuation over the decades of collective racist colonial stereotypes.
Invernomuto is the name under which Simone Bertuzzi (Piacenza, 1983) and Simone Trabucchi (Piacenza, 1982) have been collaborating since 2003. Based in Milan, Invernomuto is the author of research projects articulated in time and space, from which derive cycles of interconnected works. Starting from a common theoretical base, Invernomuto tends to reason in an open and rhizomatic way, developing different outputs that take the form of moving images, sounds, performance actions and editorial projects, in the context of a practice defined by the as dispersed as punctual use of different media. Both artists also develop individual lines of research, with the musical projects Palm Wine and STILL. Recent exhibitions include ECHOES, Haus der Kunst, Munich (2025); Panorama Monferrato, Castagnole (AT); Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich (2024); Pinksummer, Genoa (2023). Their work has been presented at: Bourse de Commerce, Paris (2024); Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz; MACRO, Rome (2022); Liverpool Biennial 2021 (2021), Galleria Nazionale, Rome; 58th Venice Biennale (2019); Tate, London; Manifesta 12, Palermo (2018).
Mackda Ghebremariam Tesfaú is a Ph.D. in Sociology and an independent researcher. She has held teaching positions at prestigious institutions such as the University of Padua, IUAV University of Venice, NYU Florence and Stanford Florence. She works on decolonial studies and anti-racist education, with a focus on the intersectionality of race, gender and class. She is curator at Centrale Fies for the fellowship dedicated to Agitu Ideo Gudeta.
Admission is free while places last.
The meeting is part of the public program of the exhibition How Do You Construct Images of the Other?, curated by Lorenzo Lazzari, produced by Altreforme in collaboration with the City of Udine and open at Casa Cavazzini, Udine Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art until March 16, 2025.
See the schedule of past events here: