Meeting around Louise Bourgeois | Tenendo per mano l’ombra – Philosophy and poetry
04 July 2024July, Thursday 4th
18:00-20:00
Historical areas of Villa Medici
Free
Event translated into French and Italian, limited availability of headphones
With Mâkhi Xenakis and Laura Accerboni
This meeting is part of Esistere come Donna, a program of encounters to accompany the exhibition Louise Bourgeois. Unconscious memories at Galleria Borghese from June 21 to September 15. The program is promoted by Galleria Borghese and designed and produced by Electa.
Mâkhi Xenakis was an emblematic figure in the latter part of Louise Bourgeois’ life. The two women met in the late 1980s, at the famous “Salons” held at the artist’s home on Sunday afternoons. Xenakis continued to associate with Bourgeois for many years, her artistic practice deeply influenced by that of the Franco-American artist, to whom she dedicated two books.
Laura Accerboni is a poet and photographer. Her works are often in dialogue with contemporary artworks. Her latest collection of poems, Il prima e il dopo dell’acqua, was recently published by Einaudi.
The presence of these two voices will enable us to present the work of Louise Bourgeois from a more intimate and personal point of view. A unique opportunity to reflect on memorial practices and the various forms of preserving the memory of an artist and her work.
It will also be possible to visit Louise Bourgeois’s works No Exit and Sainte Sébastienne, exhibited at Villa Medici.
THE SPEAKERS
MÂKHI XENAKIS
Born in 1956 in Paris, where she lives and works, Mâkhi Xenakis divides her time between sculpture, drawing and writing. In 1987, she was awarded a Villa Médicis Hors les murs scholarship in the painting section for a two-year stay in New York. It was there that she made a decisive encounter with Louise Bourgeois and saw her regularly for over twenty years. Among the books she has written, two are about Louise Bourgeois: Louise Bourgeois, l’aveugle guidant l’aveugle (Actes Sud / Galerie Lelong 1998) and Louise, sauvez-moi ! (Actes Sud 2018)
Her work has been featured in numerous public and private collections, including the Orlando Museum of Art, Centre Georges Pompidou, Manufacture nationale de Sèvres, Manufacture des Gobelins, Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, Musée Zadkine, BNF, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Brest, MAC Strasbourg and Fondation Guerlain.
LAURA ACCERBONI
Laura Accerboni (1985) is a poet and photographer. She has published the poetry collections Il prima e il dopo dell’acqua (Einaudi, 2024), Acqua acqua fuoco (Einaudi, 2020), La parte dell’annegato (Nottetempo, 2015; Eloisa Cartonera, 2019) and Attorno a ciò che non è stato (Edizioni del Leone, 2010).
Her poems have been published in several Italian and foreign magazines, and she has received several literary awards, including the Lerici Pea giovani (1996), Premio internazionale di poesia Piero Alinari (2011) and Premio Achille Marazza Opera Prima (2012). Her poems have been translated into over fifteen languages, and she has been invited to numerous international festivals in the Netherlands, Belgium, Macedonia, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Sweden and Argentina.
Since 2016, she has been one of the poets selected as part of the Versopolis project promoted by the European Union.
In collaboration with Galleria Borghese and Electa
IMAGES CREDITS:
Cover image: No Exit and Sainte Sébastienne by Louise Bourgeois at Villa Medici © Agostino Osio
Portrait Mâkhi Xenakis © Mâkhi Xenakis
Portrait Laura Accerboni © Laura Accerboni