GENIUS IS NOT ONLY MALE
My thesis consists of a first research phase and a second project phase. The first phase, titled Genius Is Not Only Male - Women's Creativity in Support of Women, traces the feminist movements that arose in the 1970s in Italy, such as Rivolta Femminile and Le Nemesiache, the stories of female artists from the past, such as Carla Accardi and Ketty La Rocca, critics, such as Carla Lonzi and Lea Vergine, and more recent artists, such as Monica Bonvicini, Chiara Fumai and Beatrice Marchi. Subsequently, I explored the relationship between art and fashion, from a feminist point of view, in contemporary times, analysing the artist Vanessa Beecroft and her many collaborations, the partnership between Flaminia Veronesi and Marni, and the brands Medea and Marco Rambaldi. I tried to show how the actions of the feminist movements and the women in art of the Seventies influenced contemporary women artists and some designers. In addition, it emerged how some brands in the fashion industry today support women and convey the feminist message through marketing and communication using art. The final purpose was to reflect on the origin of the relationship between brands and artists, to understand if a collaboration takes place because of a real sharing of values and struggles or just to increase profits.
For the second part, I chose to develop a project with an independent brand that has a deeply feminist DNA: Cormio. The latter has never collaborated with female artists and this was one more reason to organise an event where art was also present, so as to create an even stronger continuum with the first part. I paid a lot of attention to Cormio's value apparatus, which I tried to implement with the project proposal: Circolo Cormio. It is a three-evening event that combines art, cinema and fashion, in which feminism guides every choice, from the idea to the realisation: from the guests to the location, from the topics covered to the fact that no object is produced. The first day of Circolo Cormio will feature a screening of the short film Fireflies and the film Sebastiano Blu, both by the artist, director and performer Pauline Curnier Jardin, followed by a discussion between the artist and the audience. On the second day of Circolo Cormio there will be a screening of the documentary Il Popolo delle Donne by Yuri Ancarani starring Marina Valcarenghi, which will be followed by an exchange of questions and answers between the director, the psychoanalyst and the audience. Circolo Cormio concludes with a talk between Jezabelle Cormio (Creative Director of Cormio), Sabrina Mandelli (Creative Director of Ssheena), Ilenia Durazzi (Creative Director of Durazzi Milano) and Veronica Leoni (Creative Director of Quira and Calvin Klein), moderated by Giuliana Matarrese. The topic is the gender gap in fashion, due to the nominations of creative directors, in recent years, predominantly to white men.
Even the father of marketing Philip Kotler nowadays speaks of Brand Activism, that is when social responsibility becomes concrete action. The role of marketing, but more generally of companies, is not only to communicate a clear social purpose, but to take action, consistently: this is what most customers expect today. It is important to take a stand, to engage, to take sides. I like to call it thinking marketing, a definition I invented, but one that includes what I have studied and what interests me: marketing by giving more importance to thought, reflection, depth and sharing values in which one truly believes, making any action natural and believable.
I have also created a video (rubamatic) that explains why it is important to deal with these topics, a sort of introduction, comparing extracts from Pier Paolo Pasolini's documentary Comizi d'Amore with some TikToks and a speech by Oriana Fallaci with a recent report from an Italian television show called Porta a Porta.