Activists took to Genoa’s Palazzo Ducale to protest an exhibition on Artemisia Gentileschi that has drawn criticism from various groups, who say it exploits the painter’s sexual trauma and platforms her convicted rapist Agostino Tassi.
Led by anti-patriarchal advocacy group Bruciamo Tutti - Let’s Burn Everything, the action on Friday, March 29 consisted of concealing three of Tassi’s paintings on display and spattering red paint to draw attention to Italy’s domestic violence and femicide crisis.
“We are covering this painting because we cannot stand the paintings of Artemisia’s rapist being hung next to hers,” a demonstrator named Anna said during the protest action, according to a Bruciamo Tutto press release shared on Instagram.
“We are deeply disturbed by the choice to make the rape spectacular,” she continued, referencing the exhibition’s much-maligned “rape room,” which involves a dark room with a bed drenched in blood and an audio reading of Gentileschi’s graphic testimony of her assault during her 1612 rape trial.
Activists glued black cloth to the frames of Tassi’s paintings to shroud them from view while simultaneously leaving a pool of red paint on the floor alongside crimson handprints and footprints on the walls and floor.
In addition to setting off fire alarms, demonstrators crossed out Tassi’s name on the plaques next to artworks. On the wall above the labels, they wrote the name of Joy Omoragbon, a 49-year-old woman who was stabbed to deathin her Bergamo home by her partner.
Main Image :Courtesy Bruciamo Tutti
Anna Melnykova, "Palace of Labor (palats praci), architector I. Pretro, 1916", shot with analog Canon camera, 35 mm Fuji film in March 2022.
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