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STUDIO STEFANIA MISCETTI is proud to present (S)HE DEVIL, the thirteenth edition of its regular review of video work, SHE DEVIL. This year sees the exhibition – exceptionally – featuring a selection of work produced exclusively by male artists. United by their ability to provide insights and perspectives, these works consider patriarchy in its role as a relational system of power and domination.

The polyphonic conversation that Stefania Miscetti and her curatorial team have devised for this edition began in the second half of 2022, when patriarchy was not yet a recurring feature of public discourse in Italy. The choice was partly the result of the news and images coming out of the protests in Iran at the time, notably in terms of the large-scale, collective dimension they had acquired. This edition therefore engages with possible practices of male self-awareness, and their resulting stances and responsibilities with regard to violence (whether perpetrated or experienced).

To quote Francesca Pasini (who in turn refers to Lia Cigarini’s concept of ‘fratrie’): now that we are experiencing the “collapse of the patriarchal symbolic order”, men must “investigate their own difference, and from there come to terms with an Other outside of their own selves. This is the new task to correct ‘the present disorder’, and it is not only up to women.” In this sense, in spite of the different narrative point of view – provided, for the first time, by the male gaze – SHE DEVIL reaffirms its conceptual coherence with themes and curatorial choices that are inevitably and intrinsically related to the repercussions of the patriarchal system on the female world. As a result, the structural, social, political and economic aspects of hegemonic masculinity – not only as a historical and cultural construct, but also as a set of practices that have allowed the perpetration of coercion and oppression – are highlighted and questioned through the video form.

 As is traditional, this year’s edition draws its guiding spirit from the work of an internationally renowned practitioner. The artist chosen as the “Good Father“ of this edition is Alfredo Jaar, whose 1996 video piece A Short Film on Monstrosity will be featured.

A new book, published by CURA, will also celebrate the last two editions of SHE DEVIL, both of which have ‘strayed’ from the format’s usual conventions (the twelfth edition embraced the notion of fluidity). This volume will build on and extend the work of the previous one, also published by CURA, which was presented at MAXXI in 2019. The new book will be launched in spring 2024 at the Basement space in Rome.

more SHE DEVIL.