Synopsis

When Mary Richardson picks up the knife, in front of the most famous nude of her time, the women's emancipation movement crystallizes, to explode in the slash of the canvas.

Contained in Mary Richardson's gesture is, in nuce, all that the Performing Arts of the twentieth century would be: angry, critical, citationist, physical, subversive. Reenacting this fact is also an opportunity to reflect on the status of Art. Is everything okay? On stage, the two performers are demonstrating. In doing so they retrace the highlights of history, such as Mary Richardson's. Also in the dialogue in two voices are Fontana's cuts, Ai Weiwei's incarcerations to Gina Pane's wounded body. The intent is to show the troubled journey of protesters* and artists* who, now as then, are making themselves bearers of a message of change. Every revolution is gash. Is a revolutionary act a work of art?

Women with a Cleaver was created to highlight and reinforce the link between art and revolution. With this work we intend to amplify the voices of the generations to which we belong, as well as signal for all those who will listen. On stage, theatrical performance, visual arts, activism and protest follow one another and intertwine, seamlessly. Traditional affiliations are no longer enough. Here we are, then naked and armed at the same time.