Pragmàtica do cotidiano e polìtica da experiencia : Carla Lonzi e a arte como espaço relacional

The article will explore the definition of art as a field of relationship, of encounter and experience - between artist and his/her audience, artist and curator, artist and historian of art-. This ‘point of view’ recently defined as 'relational aesthetics' by Nicolas Bourriaud and actually practiced by many contemporary artists, has been theoretically anticipated in Italy in the late 60's by Carla Lonzi (1931-1982), then a brilliant young critic of art, later founder of Italian feminist movement. With her book, entitled Autoritratto (1969), as result of encounters and interviews with 14 of the most important Italian artists of that period - including Carla Accardi, Lucio Fontana, Giulio Paolini, Mimmo Rotella-, she realised an extraordinary experiment of creativity-creation. Waving an unusual and convivial text and trying to practice a relational method, she invited the artists to speak 'from themselves', in a way that would have been typical of the future feminist practice. She gave up her work in the art criticism field when she realized that the artists did not accept the reciprocity, and that her role was only that one of being their ‘ideal spectator’. After this cultural failure, she decided to embrace the political practice of Italian feminist movement. From that missed encounter between criticism, art history and feminism, which left a deep ‘wound’ in the Italian cultural history, a new generation of artists (men and women), critics, art historians is now reflecting on ‘the relationship’ as central issue in the art practice, as pragmatics of everyday life and politics of experience.