Teresa Macrì (born 1960 in

Catanzaro Catanzaro (; or ; ), also known as the "City of the two Seas" (), is an Italian city of 86,183 inhabitants (2020), the capital of the Calabria region and of its province and the second most populated comune of the region, behind Reggio Calabr ...

) is an Italian

art critic An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogue ...

curator A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...

, writer and radio broadcaster.

Early life and education

Macrì was born in Catanzaro. At the end of the 1970s she moved to

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, where she obtained a degree in History of Art at the

Sapienza University of Rome The Sapienza University of Rome (), formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", abbreviated simply as Sapienza ('Wisdom'), is a Public university, public research university located in Rome, Italy. It was founded in 1303 and is ...

. Her research is linked to the investigation of visual studies.

Career

The core of her interdisciplinary work consists of a critical analysis on the constitution of contemporary subjectivity. She has organized many exhibitions, including the 9th Biennale des Jeunes Créateurs d'Europe et de la Méditerranée (Rome, 1999); ''Mexico Attacks! Arte mexicano contemporáneo'' (Museo de Arte y Diseño Contemporáneo, Costarica, 2005) and ''Emotional Community'' (Monitor, Rome, 2009). She also organized solo presentations of the work of Carlos Garaicoa (Rome, 2003); Sislej Xhafa and Adel Abdessemed (Barcelona, 2004); Gülsün Karamustafa (Istanbul, 2006); Santiago Sierra (Rome, 2007); Domenico Mangano (Rome, 2008); and Dan Perjovschi (Rome, 2011). Macrì is a professor at the Rome University of Fine Arts. She is also regular columnist for the Italian newspaper

Il Manifesto (; English: "the manifesto") is an Italian daily newspaper published in Rome, Italy. While calling itself " communist" and broadly left-wing, it is not connected to any political party A political party is an organization that coordin ...

and collaborates with many international magazines on art and philosophy. In 2021, she was critical of Emanuele Stifano bronze sculpture ''Spigolatrice di Sapri.''

Books

Il corpo postorganico

In her first critical essay ''Il corpo postorganico (The Post-organic Body)'', 1996, Macrì advances an analysis of the bio-technological body. The body has always been a territory for social control and regulation, a crossroads between aesthetic and ideological power and is now even more radically crucial both culturally and politically. It is under construction, going through processes of identity redefinition and overturning sexual and social roles. The body has become a hybrid of organic and synthetic substance, of biological matter and silicon chips: genetic engineering and

neuroscience Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions, and its disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, ...

are subjecting it to mutation. Many performers are linked to this contamination between flesh and technology: from

Chris Burden Christopher Lee Burden (April 11, 1946 – May 10, 2015) was an American artist working in performance art, sculpture, and installation art. Burden became known in the 1970s for his performance art works, including ''Shoot (Burden), Shoot'' (1971) ...

Vito Acconci Vito Acconci (, ; January 24, 1940 – April 27, 2017) was an American performance art, performance, video and installation artist, whose diverse practice eventually included sculpture, architectural design, and landscape design. His performan ...

COUM Transmissions COUM Transmissions was a music and performance art collective who operated in the United Kingdom from 1969 through to 1976. The collective was influenced by the Dada and surrealism artistic movements, the writers of the Beat Generation, and under ...

, Leigh Bowery, Stelarc, Marcel.lì Antunez Roca and

Matthew Barney Matthew Barney (born March 25, 1967) is an American contemporary artist and film director who works in the fields of sculpture, film, photography and drawing. His works explore connections among geography, biology, geology and mythology as well ...

. Inspired by this book, Italian film director

Marco Ferreri Marco Ferreri (11 May 1928 – 9 May 1997) was an Italian film director, screenwriter and actor, who began his career in the 1950s directing three films in Spain, followed by 24 Italian films before his death in 1997. He is considered one of t ...

had decided to turn it into a movie. The film was never completed due to Ferreri's premature death in May 1997.

Postculture

The term ''Postculture'' (2002) indicates a syncretic journey through the International art of the last decade and post-colonial studies, dwelling upon the artistic declinations that have taken form in those geographical territories (Africa, Latin America) where the process of decolonization is sensed as the reconstruction of an identity. Macrì exposes the breakdown of obsolete notions such as exoticism, stereotype and folklorization of cultures.

In the Mood for Show

''In The Mood for Show'' (2008) suggests an analysis of the relationship between art and

pop culture Popular culture (also called pop culture or mass culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as popular art pop_art.html" ;"title="f. pop art">f. pop artor mass art, some ...

focusing on different spectacular artists and movie directors of our time. The main concept around which the essay revolves is the attitude of the spectacular, which has become ever more central in the frame of what is to be considered

Visual Culture Visual culture is the aspect of culture expressed in visual images. Many academic fields study this subject, including cultural studies, art history, critical theory, philosophy, media studies, Deaf Studies, and anthropology. The field of vi ...

, and that is re-elaborated and/ or re-manipulated by the practices of the seven art-makers considered (

Damien Hirst Damien Steven Hirst (; né Brennan; born 7 June 1965) is an English artist and art collector. He was one of the Young British Artists (YBAs) who dominated the art scene in the UK during the 1990s. He is reportedly the United Kingdom's richest ...

Douglas Gordon Douglas Gordon (born 20 September 1966) is a Scottish artist. He won the Turner Prize in 1996, the Premio 2000 at the 47th Venice Biennale in 1997 and the Hugo Boss Prize in 1998. He lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Work Much of Gordon's ...

Maurizio Cattelan Maurizio Cattelan (; born 21 September 1960) is an Italian visual artist. Known primarily for his hyperrealistic sculptures and installations, Cattelan's practice also includes curating and publishing. His Satire, satirical approach to art has re ...

Phil Collins Philip David Charles Collins (born 30 January 1951) is an English musician, songwriter, record producer and actor. He was the drummer and later became the lead singer of the rock band Genesis (band), Genesis and had a successful solo career, ac ...

Sofia Coppola Sofia Carmina Coppola ( , ; born May 14, 1971) is an American filmmaker and former actress. She has List of awards and nominations received by Sofia Coppola, won an Academy Awards, Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, a Golden Lion, and a Can ...

Harmony Korine Harmony Korine (born January 4, 1973) is an American filmmaker, actor, photographer, artist, and author. His methods feature an erratic, loose and transgressive aesthetic, exploring taboo themes and incorporating experimental techniques,Alicia Kn ...

and

Chris Cunningham Chris Cunningham (born 15 October 1970) is an English video artist and music video director who directed music videos for electronic musicians such as Autechre, Squarepusher, and Aphex Twin and Björk. Early in his career he worked as a com ...

Politics/Poetics

The book ''Politics/Poetics'' (2017) deals with the analysis and fusion of the concepts of politics and poetics in contemporary art. Their relationship, examined through the work of two artists, Jeremy Deller and Francis Alÿs, reflects an unconventional and dissident attitude within the contemporary art system. The correlation between politics and poetics is explored through a network of multiple connections that include situationism, Marxism, pop music, rock, surrealism and dadaism, psychoanalysis and visual studies. By affinity, artists like

, Mike Kelley,

Allan Kaprow Allan Kaprow (August 23, 1927 – April 5, 2006) was an American performance artist, installation artist, painter, and assemblagist . He helped to develop the " Environment" and "Happening" in the late 1950s and 1960s, as well as their theory. ...

, André Cadere, Group Material,

, Hélio Oiticica, Akram Zaatari, Santiago Sierra, Bas Jan Ader,

Lawrence Weiner Lawrence Charles Weiner (February 10, 1942December 2, 2021) was an artist born and raised in New York City. One of the central figures in the formation of Conceptual Art in the 1960s, Lawrence Weiner explored the potentials of language as a scu ...

, filmmakers like Elia Suleiman, Harmony Korine and Alejandro González Iñárritu are connected to each other as well as to Stuart Hall and Antonio Gramsci, Hannah Arendt and Guy Debord, and Cinéma vérité.

Fallimento

''Fallimento (Failure)'' is a trans-generational investigation that analyses the concept of failure in contrast with the ostentatious dimension of success. The concept of failure, removed from the sphere of contemporary consciousness and based on the efficiency of performance and on the conformity of standards, is reinstated through the work of art as a stimulating and vital energy, as well as a reference to the metaphor of the ideological, political and cultural bankruptcy of consumer society. The study focuses on various artists: Cesare Pietroiusti,

Iggy Pop James Newell Osterberg Jr. (born April 21, 1947), known professionally as Iggy Pop, is an American singer, musician, songwriter, actor and radio broadcaster. He was the vocalist and lyricist of proto-punk band the Stooges, who were formed in 1 ...

Bruce Nauman Bruce Nauman (born December 6, 1941) is an American artist. His practice spans a broad range of media including sculpture, photography, neon, video, drawing, printmaking, and performance. Nauman lives near Galisteo, New Mexico. Life and work ...

John Baldessari John Anthony Baldessari (June 17, 1931 – January 2, 2020) was an American conceptual artist known for his work featuring found photography and appropriated images. He lived and worked in Santa Monica and Venice, California. Initially a paint ...

, Marcel Broodthaers, Bas Jan Ader,

Tacita Dean Tacita Charlotte Dean CBE, RA (born 1965) is a British visual artist who works primarily in film. She was a nominee for the Turner Prize in 1998, won the Hugo Boss Prize in 2006, and was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in 2008. She lives ...

, Fischli & Weiss,

Francis Alÿs Francis Alÿs (born 1959, Antwerp) is a Belgian-born, Mexico-based artist. His work emerges in the interdisciplinary space of art, architecture, and social practice. In 1986, Alÿs left behind his as an architect and relocated to Mexico City, ...

Robert Smithson Robert Smithson (January 2, 1938 – July 20, 1973) was an American artist known for sculpture and land art who often used drawing and photography in relation to the spatial arts. His work has been internationally exhibited in galleries and mu ...

Jeremy Deller Jeremy Deller (born 30 March 1966) is an English people, English conceptual, video and installation artist. Much of Deller's work is Collaboration, collaborative; it has a strong political aspect, in the subjects dealt with and also the Idealiz ...

, Walter De Maria, Sislej Xhafa, Superflex, Francesco Arena and others.

Pensiero discordante

The dissenting process emphasized by the author in her book is an approach that is free from the conventions and values that regulate cultural flatness, a reaction through which the thinking individual is repositioned in order to deconstruct the dominating symbolic order. In this drifting era, most of the planet seems hypnotized by a unanimous vision of the world, complacent and exalted by the mechanisms of consensus politics. We must stop and consider the catalysts triggered by this condition, as artists and thinkers do by means of their aesthetic utopias, their paradoxes, their metaphors, their aesthetic digressions, their ability to generate worlds and dismantle them.

John Giorno John Giorno (December 4, 1936 – October 11, 2019) was an American performance poetry, poet and performance artist. He founded the not-for-profit production company Giorno Poetry Systems and organized a number of early multimedia poetry experim ...

, Francis Alÿs, Luca Vitone, Sislej Xhafa,

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and Extended technique, non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one ...

and Luca Guadagnino, among others, depict a destabilizing horizon and recreate a “different” approach.

Exhibits

In 2019 she curated the ''You got to burn to shine'' exhibit at the National Gallery of Modern Art, in Rome.

Bibliography

* Teresa Macrì, ''Splatter'', Rome, Stampa Alternativa, 1993 * Teresa Macrì, ''Il corpo postorganico'', Milan, Costa & Nolan, 1996 - * Teresa Macrì, ''Metamorfosi do sentir'', Lisbon, Assirio Y Alvim, 1998 * Teresa Macrì, ''Cinemacchine del desiderio'', Milan, Costa & Nolan, 1998 - * Teresa Macrì, ''Postculture'', Rome, Meltemi, 2002 - * Teresa Macrì, ''Il corpo postorganico'', (new edition), Rome, Costa & Nolan, 2006 - * Teresa Macrì, ''In the Mood for Show'', Rome, Meltemi, 2008 - * Teresa Macrì, ''Politics/Poetics'', Milan, Postmedia Books, 2014 - * Teresa Macrì, ''Fallimento'', Milan, Postmedia Books, 2017 - * Teresa Macrì, ''Pensiero discordante'', Milan, Postmedia Books, 2018

Notes

External links

Postmedia Books

Politics , Poetics on Google Books

Meltemi Editore

Visual Studies – University of California, Irvine
{{DEFAULTSORT:Macri, Teresa Italian art critics Italian women art critics Italian art curators Living people 1960 births Italian women curators