Marinella Senatore Italy, 1977
The
series Bodies in Alliance / Politics of
the Street appropriates the title of a 2011
conference by philosopher Judith Butler which examines public demonstrations
against the precarious status of working people, gender and sexual minorities,
as well as the self-determination under tyrannical regimes in North Africa and
the Middle East.
The
people that appear in the pictures by Marinella Senatore are members of the Pussy Riot performing
in in an underground nightclub on Hope
Street, Johannesburg (South Africa). Senatore
invited Pussy Riot to join her on a trip to Johannesburg to address the lack of
safety of LGTBIQ+
communities, and the surge of night clubs to assume the role of "new
churches". South Africa and Russia (Pussy Riot's motherland) are
characterized by the lack of freedom in the street, and it turned the stage on
night clubs into social platforms and meeting places for likeminded people. The
photographs focus on Pussy Riot's convulsed actions for the camera, as their
limbs synchronized with each other in one politicized body. Although they share
some familiarity with the visual documentation of 1970s
feminism, the colors are vivid and saturated as in modern social media.
Moreover, the aesthetics of the artwork wink at vintage film strips with the
black frame hitting the print, and two curtains complete the presentation.