Book review: Patrizia Vicinelli,La nott’e’l giorno. L’opera poetica

Roberta Bisogno and Fabio Orecchini’s latest editorial endeavor, La nott’e’l giorno. L’opera poetica (Argolibri, 2024), brings the works of the poet, artist, performer, and actress Patrizia Vicinelli (1943–1991) back into the spotlight. This volume reissues her published works à, a. A and Non sempre ricordano, along with her stream-of-consciousness novel Messmer, the theatrical piece Cenerentola (a feminist reinterpretation of the famous fairy tale written with fellow inmates at Rebibbia prison), and her final poem “I fondamenti dell’essere.” Each work is accompanied by a brief introduction providing historical context and bibliographical references. The volume concludes with a short bibliography, directing readers to Cecilia Bello Minciacchi’s comprehensive study (Vicinelli P (2009) Non Sempre Ricordano: Poesia, Prosa, Performance, edited by Cecilia Bello Minciacchi. Rome: Le Lettere).

The main novelty is the inclusion of color photographic reproductions of diapositives from Apotheosys of Schizoid Woman, Vicinelli’s artist’s book created during her escape to Morocco, published here not in black and white for the first time. The book is leafed through from left to right, starting from the last page (the first according to the author’s order) to the first. Although the original manuscript is lost, these reproductions provide a vivid glimpse into her work’s texture and vibrant colors. While the original reading direction has not been preserved, the sequence of the pages has been maintained. Unfortunately, the size of the reproductions makes them difficult to read, posing a challenge despite the enhanced visual presentation.

The interest in the performative side of Vicinelli’s work, prompted by the CD included in Minciacchi’s book, has been picked up other disciplines, prompting a series of study days and exhibitions, such as Patrizia Vicinelli. Una parola incorreggibile organized under the guide of Carla Subrizi at Museo Laboratorio di Arte Contemporanea dell’Università “La Sapienza” (MLAC) in Rome in 2014, and Patrizia Vicinelli. In Transito (September 2 to October 27, 2021), curated by Fondazione Home Movies – Archivio Nazionale del Film di Famiglia in Bologna. The most recent exhibition, with a title that winks at both Edward Albee and Ketty La Rocca, was curated by Luca Lo Pinto and Lisa Andreani at Museo di Arte Contemporanea (MACRO) in Rome. La nott’e’l giorno. L’opera poetica aims to be in dialogue with these experiences: the title is in fact inspired by the eponymous 1976 experimental movie (also known as Il giorno e la notte) by Gianni Castagnoli, Vicinelli’s longtime companion. Characterized by an alternation between a fast rhythm (in tune with Alvin Curran’s soundtrack) and sudden slowdowns, long shots and fragmentary images, it is an innovative angle to look at Vicinelli’s physical performance. In one scene, Castagnoli slowly moves the camera from head to toe over Vicinelli, who sits silently, smoking. He captures her body from foot to head, focusing on details and revealing her gradually, in fragments, much like she had framed reflections of the Mona Lisa on shards of mirror. Both in this evocative sequence and in her poetry readings, Patrizia’s body is to be understood as undergoing a physical mediation of words, voice, and gesture. The choice of the title aims to highlight the contamination of her poetics with cinema, which has been set aside by the critics, apart from Giulia Simi (Simi G (2020) La coincidenza dell’essere. I soggetti erranti di Patrizia Vicinelli tra poesia e cinema sperimentale. L’avventura 2: 259–275). The connection between these various elements suggests the word performance, a word that is curiously absent from the introduction.

Bisogno closes the introduction by emphasizing the importance of accessibility, to give the author space to be read, quoting Vincenzo Accame (Accame V (2011 [1967]) Storia e cronistoria di tre a. Malebolge 1. In: Gazzola E (ed.) Malebolge. L’altra rivista delle avanguardie. Reggio Emilia: Edizioni Diabasis, p. 59):

This book most certainly accomplishes that, reproducing some now difficult-to-access works of Patrizia Vicinelli in a pocket-sized volume, showcasing for the first time the complexity of Apotheosys of Schizoid Woman. While the size and order of the photographic reproductions are questionable, this book responds to a need in the Italian Studies field to access and study poets like Vicinelli, who rarely gain general interest but are of crucial importance for the development of transdisciplinary perspectives in the scholarship of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.