Re-Materialization of Language. 1978–2022 represents the first attempt at a philological reconstruction of the seminal exhibition Materializzazione del linguaggio, while simultaneously re-activating and re-contextualizing its historical themes in the present. Long overlooked, the 1978 exhibition, curated by Mirella Bentivoglio and dedicated to the verbo-visual explorations of eighty international women artists across diverse materials and practices, both individual and collective, marked a belated reintegration of women’s and feminist art practices within an edition of the Biennale di Venezia that was not yet fully aware of their significance. Now recognized, after a long period of oblivion, as a turning point in the institutional emergence of women’s creativity and feminist art, Materializzazione del linguaggio was re-presented as a new exhibition in 2022, on the centenary of Bentivoglio’s birth, at Antonio Dalle Nogare Foundation in Bolzano, and is now re-materialized in this publication.

Featuring visual and textual contributions from curators and editors Cristiana Perrella, Andrea Viliani, and Vittoria Pavesi; artists Tomaso Binga, Monica Bonvicini, BRACHA, and Nora Turato, who were invited to re-activate the exhibition; exhibition designer Matilde Cassani; book graphic designer Irma Boom; and Studio Mut, the graphic designers of the exhibition’s communication materials, this publication, like the exhibition itself, navigates between bi- and tri-dimensionality, blurring the distinction between artwork and document, between museum and archive.

Designed by Irma Boom Office, the publication also includes a photographic foldout showcasing the works presented in the 2022 exhibition at Antonio Dalle Nogare Foundation in Bolzano.