Giulia Andreani has been living in Paris, France, for the last ten years. Her oeuvre reveals and subverts history by addressing notions of historical amnesia and generating new layers of meaning, interrogating the narratives conveyed in photo archives, sifting through the folds of official history to make them liberated. Andreani’s work initiates a dialogue with self-taught artist Madge Gill. Working under the influence of Myrninerest, her spirit guide, Gill’s work is the result of her traumatic life experiences and ability to be mediumistically connected to other worlds. Drawing a connection between her story and the history of women’s access to artistic practice, Andreani’s five paintings and glass sculpture highlight the women’s suffrage movement in Britain at the turn of the twentieth century. Facing Gill’s masterpiece, Crucifixion of the Soul (1936), Andreani’s work draws inspiration partly from archives documenting the pioneering women of that period, and Gill’s position as a woman and artist during that period. Exploring possible links between feminism and spiritualism as a form of empowerment and resistance, Andreani deals with invisible emotional affinities among creative female bodies.
This is the first time the work of Giulia Andreani is presented at Biennale Arte.
—Michela Alessandrini
