Tomaso Binga

1931 | Salerno, Italy
Informations
Tomaso Binga — AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes

Courtesy Tomaso Binga and Galleria Tiziana Di Caro

Sponsor
— Galleria Tiziana Di Caro

Italian artist and writer.

Tomaso Binga (who was married to the art critic Filiberto Menna) explained that she chose a male pseudonym in order to parody the cultural privileges reserved for men. This ploy to discredit the art world, passing by way of a disguised sexual identity (a theme which occurs throughout her work), started with a demystification of the difference between the sexes in writing and language. She lives in Rome, where, since 1970, she has carried on her tireless activity involving the organization of avant-garde events with performances, collages, video and sonic poetry works, and painting, involving nothing less than a contamination of codes—writing, gestures, bodies, signs, sounds and images—, very frequently pushed to the limits of  meaninglessness, as, for example, in E non uscire di casa [And don’t leave the house](1977), Abecedario (1981), Indovina cos’è [Guess what it is] (1987), Rimerotiche [Erotic rhymes] (1992) and Vorrei essere un vigile urbano [I’d like to be a traffic policeman].

Like nothing less than a midwife of images, Binga displays a provocative spirit and unusual opinions, but in order to understand her very varied method of invention, both playful and committed, we must refer not so much to a repetition of futurist tests, as to the anti-sexist themes of the difference between the sexes, psychoanalysis applied to language, and oedipal archetypes. In her countless works and performances, what is invariably involved is a happy sexual liberation of words, with the help of refrains, stereotypes, riddles and a material dissemination of signs.

Enza Biagini

Translated from French by Simon Pleasance.

From the Dictionnaire universel des créatrices
© 2013 Des femmes – Antoinette Fouque
© Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions
Tomaso Binga — AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes

Tomaso Binga, Io e Me [I and Me], 1976, diptych, two black and white photographs and Indian ink, © Photo: Verita Monselles

Tomaso Binga — AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes

Tomaso Binga, Alfabetiere murale (detail), 1976, collage on cardboard, 21 elements, Collezione Archivio Menna – Binga, Roma, In comodato al Madre, Napoli, Courtesy Tomaso Binga and Galleria Tiziana Di Caro, © Photo: Amedeo Benestante,

Tomaso Binga — AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes

Tomaso Binga, Alfabetiere murale, 1976, collage on cardboard, 21 elements, Collezione Archivio Menna – Binga, Roma, In comodato al Madre, Napoli, Courtesy Tomaso Binga and Galleria Tiziana Di Caro, © Photo: Amedeo Benestante,

Tomaso Binga — AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes

Tomaso Binga, Alfabetiere murale (detail), 1976, collage on cardboard, 21 elements, Collezione Archivio Menna – Binga, Roma, In comodato al Madre, Napoli, Courtesy Tomaso Binga and Galleria Tiziana Di Caro, © Photo: Amedeo Benestante,

Tomaso Binga — AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes

Tomaso Binga, Mater – Litanie Lauretane, 1976-2015, photocollage and ink on paper, 28 elements, 35 x 40 each, Courtesy Tomaso Binga and Galleria Tiziana Di Caro

Tomaso Binga — AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes

Tomaso Binga, Ti scrivo solo di domenica [I write only on Sunday], 1977, 52 letters typewritten on Carte di Amalfi Courtesy Tomaso Binga and Galleria Tiziana Di Caro, © Photo: Danilo Donzelli

Tomaso Binga — AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes

Tomaso Binga, Test per un critico [Test for a critic], 1972, collage on styrofoam, ink, plexiglass, 23 x 45 cm, Courtesy Tomaso Binga and Galleria Tiziana Di Caro

Tomaso Binga — AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes

Tomaso Binga, Mani per una parabola [Hands for a parable], 1973, styrofoam, collage and plexiglass, Courtesy Tomaso Binga and Galleria Tiziana Di Caro

Tomaso Binga — AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes

Tomaso Binga, Tirassegno (giallo) [Yellow target], 1971, collage on styrofoam, plexiglass, 49.2 x 49.2 x 4.7 cm, Courtesy Tomaso Binga and Galleria Tiziana Di Caro

Tomaso Binga — AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes

Tomaso Binga, Angolare [Angular], 1974, marker on bristo paper, 69.8 x 50 cm, Courtesy Tomasoi Binga and Galleria Tiziana Di Caro

Tomaso Binga — AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes

Tomaso Binga, Parole in dissolvenza [Fading out words], 1973, ink on paper, 40 x 139 cm, Courtesy Tomasoi Binga and Galleria Tiziana Di Caro

Tomaso Binga — AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes

Tomaso Binga, Ritratto analogico [Analog portrait], 1974, collage and marker pen on paper, 50 x 70 cm, Courtesy Tomaso Binga and Galleria Tiziana Di Caro

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