Margherita Morgantin: "Performance #1" (2001). image copyright Margherita Morgantin

Margherita Morgantin (Italy *1971)

Margherita Morgantin studied architecture in Venice; she lives and works in Milan, Venice and Palermo. Her work refashions the concept of 'self-awareness,' one of the key ideas of 1970s feminism. As traces of her performances she leaves fragile artifacts in desolate wastelands to affirm a transient and subjective identity. Relations with others and an engagement with technical functionality are amongst her references.

"Performance #1: Dejeuner Sur L'Herbe' is based on Edouard Manet's painting "Luncheon on the Grass' and inverts the complicity of the male gaze on the naked female body. Next to a group of cheerful young women, we see naked men lying in the grass. In "Performance #2,' Margherita Morgantin climbs up an electric pole until the Carabinieri put a stop to the action.