History and memory are, in different ways, a construction, like photography, and do not represent or tell what immediately appears but rather what we want to preserve, reveal, or reflect on.

Monuments dedicated to women who played a public role or gained a noteworthy position in the public sphere, be they ones known, unknown, or forgotten, are undoubtedly unlikely, just like many of the spaces where they are placed in this series, which is simply an imaginary catalogue, like the monuments themselves.

What is also proposed is a reflection on the meaning of "monument", on how we are remembered and how we would like to be represented, perhaps through other forms than the patriarchal ones monuments have taken on.

The catalogue is presented as an excerpt and the series is ongoing. Even the gaps and the cataloguing itself may be filled or continued through proposals, making this cataloguing process collaborative. People are indeed encouraged to find other connections with the places. All these monuments are imagined in Bologna, Italy, the regional capital of Emilia-Romagna.

Forty images were first shown at Istituto Storico Parri of Bologna, in an exhibition promoted by Istituto Storico Parri and Lavì City, curated by Giovanna Calvenzi on the occasion of Art City Bologna 2024. The project has the patronage of the Municipality of Bologna.

12. Dorothea Lange, 13. Margherita Hack, 15. Maria Callas, 17. Simone De Beauvoir, 21.Irma Bandiera, 23. Anita Garibaldi, 27. Maria Montessori, 31. Aleksandra Kollontaj, 32. Francesca Morvillo, 34. Frances Thompson, 43. Hannah Arendt, 45. Billie Holiday, 51. Nilde Iotti, 53. Alda Merini, 54. Sibilla Aleramo, 63. Virginia Oldoini Veraris Contessa di Castiglione, 73. Joice Lussu, 81. Olga Prati, Maria Chindamo, 85. Laura Bassi, 91. Ersilia Caetani Lovatelli, 95. Virginia Woolf, 97. Rosa Parks, 101. Ruth Bader Ginzburg, 103. Rosa Luxemburg, 105. Rukhmabai, 107. Anna Kulishoff, 109. Simone Weil, 112. Mabel Hampton, 114. Mathilde Fibiger, 116. Maria Sybilla Merian, 117. Alfonsina Strada, 119. Tina Anselmi, 122. Rosa Genoni, 125. Mary Beatty, 127. Olympe De Gouges, 130. Jane Austen, 132. Teresa Noce, 115. Lavinia Fontana, 138. Anna Atkins, 141. Frances Benjamin Johnston, 144. Maria Ilva Biolcati, Milva, 147. Emma Goldman, 151. Ursula Hirschmann, 153. Florence Nightingale, 155. Alba de Cespedes, 158. Wangari Muta Maathai, 160. Marie Curie, 162. Eleanor Roosevelt, 164. Rita Levi Montalcini.

Digital prints 30 x 45 cm (2020-2024)

Unlikely Monuments. Excerpt from the Catalogue.

Limited edition of 20 artist’s books containing 50 images and a hand sewed pamphlet, 30 x 45 cm in a 32 x 47 x 3 cm plexiglass case.

Texts, photographs and design © Sonia Lenzi, Typography and layout © Sara Murrone, essays by © Giovanna Calvenzi, © Lucy R. Lippard and © Uliana Zanetti

October 2024, Tosca Press