I vividly remember the first time I saw James Bidgood’s underground film Pink Narcissus (1971): I was 15 and still in the closet.
Francesco Dama
Francesco Dama is a freelance art writer based in Rome, Italy.
He regularly writes for several print and online publications, and wastes most of his time on Instagram.
Posted inArt
A Photographer’s Portrait of the Theater of the Streets
A pioneer of street photography, Levitt worked in the most crowded and poorest neighborhoods of New York searching for the theater of everyday life.
Posted inArt
At Rome’s Quadriennale, Out With the Old and In With Historical Interventions
Fuori proposes a reinterpretation of Italian visual arts from the 1960s to the present day, affording greater prominence to women and young artists.
Posted inMusic
Remembering Patrick Cowley, Pioneer of Dance Music and Occasional Composer of Porn Soundtracks
Melding psychedelia with disco at a fast tempo, Cowley helped refine a new music genre, “Hi-NRG,” which seemed ideal to enhance the hot and sweaty vibe of San Francisco’s gay clubs.
Posted inArt
In 1977, an Artist Married Her Male Alter-Ego to Challenge Chauvinism
For almost 50 years, Tomaso Binga has been tackling the numerous manifestations of patriarchy in Italian culture. At 88, she is a living legend in Rome’s cultural scene.
Posted inBooks
Finding Beauty in the Mundane Landscapes of Northern Italy
In Luigi Ghirri’s Colazione sull’Erba, previously unpublished images from the photographer’s archive present a sparsely populated world of placid tranquility.
Posted inArt
Reimagining Artworks as Actors and the Gallery as a Stage
For General Rehearsal, authors wrote scenes for fictional productions, selecting works of art instead of characters.
Posted inArt
A Film Probes the Legacy of BUTT Magazine
At the beginning of the 2000s, Dutch publishers Gert Jonkers and Jop van Bennekom started to edit BUTT with the aim to tackle the then mainstream gay aesthetic of perfectly groomed men with something dirtier, frank, and authentic.
Posted inArt
Lucio Fontana’s Surprising, Enveloping Installations
Among Fontana’s least-known works, the Spatial Environments feel like the pieces that can allow for a better understanding of the depth and breadth of the artist’s practice, which is too often solely associated with the famous cut-up paintings.
Posted inArt
How the Cosmos Has Inspired a Photographer’s Vision
Thomas Ruff’s photographs question history, art making, and the medium itself.
Posted inArt
Researching Queer Archives from the Former Eastern Bloc
Karol Radziszewski began his art publication DIK Fagazine in 2005, and has since delved into the little-known queer archives of former Soviet Union countries.
Posted inArt
Seeing 1970s Italy Through Its Subversive Public Broadcasting Network
Francesco Vezzoli has delved into the archival material of Radiotelevisione Italiana, shaping a narrative of the culture, politics, and entertainment of the period.