“From Woman to Woman.” Exhibiting Genealogy – Carla Accardi’s Origine, 1976

Abstract

This paper reconsiders the so far undervalued importance of Carla Accardi’s solo exhibition Origine, mounted in May 1976 at a women’s cooperative co-founded by the artist at Via Beato Angelico 18 in Rome. At its all but neutral location, I argue, the self-curated exhibition, encompassing a larger display of Accardi’s work, rendered visible the private and political entanglement of her artistic practice, significantly expanding its potential meaning. In engaging with the exhibition’s precarious documentation and critical coverage, I will demonstrate that on this occasion, rather than providing a conventional overview of stylistic developments, Accardi temporarily staged, in Foucault’s sense, a context of origin for her becoming in the present: as woman and artist.