redagainstblack



gallery

International Women’s House, Buon Pastore monumental complex, Rome
art installazion realized on the occasion of the INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR THE ELIMINATION OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
NOVEMBER 25 2025
It was realized in collaboration with International Women’s House and SOS Razzismo Italia
November 23 2024 – January 8 2025

photo by Franca Marini
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fabrics, burlap straps, copper and iron threads 46x13yd

photos by Massimo Marini
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ON A SUNNY MORNING  photos by Franca Marini
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WITH NO SUN  photos by Franca Marini
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from the Tiber River embankment


WIP art installation  photo by Angela Scalzo
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photo by Massimo Marini
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photos by Franca Marini

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artwork making


photos by Beatrice Turchi
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photos by Francesca Scalzo
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photos by Rosa Mendes
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the artist with president International Women's House Maura Cossutta 


opening


NOVEMBRE 25 2024
on the occasion of the INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR THE ELIMINATION OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
the art installation and the facade of the building were lit up in red

photos by Francesca Scalzo
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photo by Luisa Ghetti
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photos by Rosa Mendes
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description


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The monumental complex of the Good Shepherd in Via della Lungara in Rome was built at the beginning of the 17th century to host the House of Penance that welcomed women who had been marginalized by society.

Two black bands create a x crossing each other in the center of the sculpture of the Good Shepherd placed above the building’s entrance. The black x alludes to the cancellation, rejection, overcoming of the rhetoric of the good shepherd who carries on his shoulders the lost sheep.
The centerpiece of the installation is the large red shape. In the initial ideation of the artwork it should have represented a bow, the pink or blue birth bow, which, according to an ancient tradition still in use, is set at the entrance of the house to make a child birth into a public event.
The bow is red because red is the color of blood, because of the violence, not only physical but psychological as well, to which the female gender has been subjected since birth for millennia.
The “expositio” or abandonment of newborns, which often meant certain death, was practiced in antiquity, by the Greeks and the Romans as well. As we know, it was much more widespread among female infants.
They were victims of a patriarchal culture which, embodied in Christianity, is still part of our society.

The central red form has been transformed into a torn body, knots are tightening it as to suffocate it. It is tied and pulled at its ends by the black x. A dynamic between opposing forces is being created.
The red, the dominant colour of this installation, alludes to blood, but also to vitality. Streams of blood come off the ripped body and turn into trajectories that cross the entire length of the building in search of a new horizon.
Franca Marini, October 2024-January 2025

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