Lezione performativa di autocoscienza combattente femminista

The combatant self-awareness  class is part of a project reflecting on female identity and the representation of women’s liberation. It is a practice that, through body and mind, aims to remove sociocultural blocks that prevent female and nonconforming subjectivities from expressing their combative and assertive potential. Androcentric and patriarchal cultures have long defined women as “the weaker sex,” thus unable not only to defend themselves, but also to act fully, to fulfil themselves and their own design, except within the limits imposed by the superiority of “masculine strength.” This “weakness” is not a natural element but the result of introjected psycho-physical conditioning that, in addition to limiting the expressive potential of those who do not belong to the “stronger” categories, imprisons the very notion of strength in a logic of eternal overpowerment. Feminist combatant self-consciousness aims to liberate the forces, which are not only ones of destruction and suppression, while remaining material and combatant, and at the same time, to liberate body-realities from the sense of inferiority that prevents them from experiencing themselves as complete organisms, capable of balancing care and combat, assertiveness and empathy, efficacy and sensitivity.

Alessandra Chiricosta
Philosopher, activist, expert in Gender Studies, historian of religions specializing in cultures of mainland Southeast Asia, where she carried out field research for many years. She practices, studies and teaches martial arts following an approach that combines psycho-body practices and theoretical research. She is currently a lecturer in Gender Flows on the graduate program in Global Governance at Tor Vergata University; she teaches Gender Studies at John Cabot University in Rome, and she is coordinator of the “Intercultura” and “Forza” modules on the Master’s Program in Gender Studies and Policies, Roma Tre University. Her publications include Un Altro Genere di Forza, Iacobelli Editore (2019); Filosofia Interculturale e Valori Asiatici, ObarraO (2013).

Admission free, subject to availability. For info and bookings:  info@fondazionefurla.org

The Public Program of the Andrea Bowers exhibition is made possible with the support of Deloitte.