CANCELED / Nuda vita. The practice of collective and political body II

Artist list

Vivien Bedwell, Daria Borovkova, Satomi Kawai, Anna Lewis, Nina Lima, Peter Machata, Jana Machatova, Nanna Obel, Margherita Potenza, Eva Van Kempen, Tanel Veenre, Snem Yildirim

​The initiative, curated by Ilaria Ruggiero, explores the value and role of the public, collective and political body, taking as its starting point the expression Nuda Vita, coined by Benjamin and then developed by the philosopher Giorgio Agamben, reworked as an impossible condition, an indescribable concept, and artistic action.

As an artistic movement and an open platform for reflection, this year the exhibition presents the previously unseen work of 12 artists who have both continued and made further contributions to artistic research around the public body and social and political identity: Vivien Bedwell, Daria Borovkova, Satomi Kawai, Anna Lewis, Nina Lima, Peter Machata, Jana Machatova, Nanna Obel, Margherita Potenza, Eva van Kempen, Tanel Veenre, Snem Yildirim.

The artists were invited to explore different aspects of nudity, as an ideological and existential condition that humanity experiences when free from constraints, rules, obligations and norms, in order to develop a personal artistic resistance action.

The goal is to compare the most varied experiences and to broaden social and political awareness. The great wealth of perspectives and themes already set out in the first edition presents jewellery as a means of raising questions relating to major issues such as the role of women in society, the issue of gender, the freedom to have control of one's own body, sexual orientation, slavery, the idea of beauty, regimes and dictatorships, mysticism and eroticism, disability and public spaces.

With a view to accompanying the creations with an in-depth critical discourse, in this edition, the relationship between ethics and aesthetics will be considered in greater depth in the catalogue, in an attempt to position artistic practice in a progressive stance and give it true weight.

Nuda Vita remains an act of provocation and resistance, subversion and awareness, which stages the body, through the jewel, as a statement of politics, identity and humanity.


About Adornment - Curating Contemporary Art Jewelry
Adornment - Curating Contemporary Art Jewelry is a curatorial integrated project dedicated to contemporary art jewelry. Founded by Ilaria Ruggiero, it aims to develop the knowledge and consciousness of contemporary jewelry as an artistic discipline as well as ground search for technique, aesthetics and philosophy.

The catalogue is also accompanied by an essay by Lieta Marziali and it will be available during the exhibition.

Essay by Lieta Marziali.
Graphic design: Barbara Modolo.
Produced by Adornment – Curating Contemporary Art Jewelry.
Sponsor: Arts Council of Wales, Swansea College of Art. University of Wales Trinity St David.