Vocalizing is the title of a double solo exhibition that focuses on the written word used, with very different outcomes, by Tomaso Binga (born Salerno, Italy, 1931) and Greta Schödl (born Hollabrunn, Austria, 1929) from the beginning of their long careers.
For Binga, the word is the political tool par excellence for deconstructing a language that has always been male-oriented, while for Schödl the written word is the graphic-aesthetic element that, emptied of meaning, becomes rhythm, vibration and the perfect seismograph to record her moods on a daily basis.
It has taken years for women to learn to ‘speak’ in order to be heard, to understand that the word is the key means to express feelings and thoughts and to give voice to an identity that has remained silent for too long. Like children in their early infancy who must work hard to line up vowels and consonants in order to find their own voice, women have had to struggle to find a common voice with which to express themselves. Within the feminist movement, the claims of female poets and visual artists gathered such strength that they have courageously rewritten not only the words that tell their stories, but also the very history of art.
