DISPACCIO AND MUSEO MADRE

SEPTEMBER 7, 2025

17:00 - 20:00

Hosted at Dispaccio on September 7 in Naples, this event marks the second talk in a series initiated by Michela Palermo and Giorgia Basch dedicated to exploring the potential of the artist’s book and the use of image archives in contemporary practice.

On this occasion, the conversation unfolds in dialogue with the pioneering feminist legacy of artist Tomaso Binga and the exhibition Euforia. Tomaso Binga, curated by Eva Fabbris with Daria Khan at museo Madre – the event opens with a free guided tour of the exhibition led by Alberta Romano, winner of the 14th edition of the Italian Council with the research project Kinship and Archive. It will then continue at Dispaccio with the participation of Ivano Bove, founder of Dispaccio, and Alberta Romano.

The guided tour of the Euforia exhibition is an opportunity to delve into the work of Tomaso Binga through a research perspective that explores the relationship between archival materials and intimacy, focusing on the concept of kinship and on how it can influence collecting and archiving practices while reshaping dominant narratives.

The panel, that will take place in Dispaccio, explores the artist’s book and the use of archives as political tools – devices that do not merely preserve memory but reconfigure it. Through the lens of two distinct publishing projects, the discussion will examine how archival materials can be activated through artistic publishing to confront, reimagine, and resist dominant histories, and invent new languages.

The conversation will open with Giorgia Basch, presenting Al cerchio delle tue mani, a collection of never-before-seen photographs of the gatherings and communal life of the first feminist groups in Italy, taken by Bibi Tomasi. Published by BilderAtlas, the book draws from the photographic archives of the Libreria delle donne di Milano, one of Italy’s historical feminist collectives, which collaborated with Binga since its inception in the 1970s. In parallel, Michela Palermo will present Whereupon and Whereupon, Turmoil, respectively a photo book and a fanzine developed from the archives of Allen Frame, an American photographer, writer and theatre director who documented the queer and artistic subcultures of 1980s New York. The books are published by Palermo Publishing.

Drawing on their practices as publishers, the speakers will reflect on how the artist’s book functions not only as a medium for aesthetic experimentation, but as a critical, relational and embodied practice. Central to this dialogue is the idea of the book as a feminist and queer space – a place where counter-narratives take form, archives are unsettled, and visual language becomes a site of resistance.

The panel will offer a space for collective reflection on how artist-led publishing reclaims and reanimates the archive, shaping new ways of reading, remembering and imagining.

Giorgia Basch is a curator, publisher, art director and art historian. She lives and works in Milan, where she founded and directs BilderAtlas, a studio for creative direction, gallery and publishing house. With BilderAtlas, she publishes and curates the series Eight Poems by, dedicated to contemporary women visual artists. Among her recent books is Al cerchio delle tue mani by Bibi Tomasi, which received the Special Mention at the Prix du Livre Historique at the Rencontres d'Arles 2025. With a decade of experience in fashion and advertising, she has held managerial positions at i-D and Jil Sander, creating over the years numerous campaigns with leading figures in international photography and cinema. Photography is also at the heart of her collaborations in the arts and culture field: since 2020, she has been a board member of the Libreria delle donne di Milano, and collaborates with publishers and institutions in the art world on publications and exhibitions aimed at enhancing women's perspectives in image culture.
In the academic field, she is a lecturer at Istituto Marangoni. She holds a Master’s degree with Highest Honours in Visual Cultures and Curatorial Practices from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, and a Bachelor’s degree in Modern Languages and Literatures from the University of Triest.

BilderAtlas is a space for visual practice engaged in curation, creative direction, publishing and cultural research from a feminist, interdisciplinary perspective. As a studio, gallery and publishing house, BilderAtlas operates as an open laboratory of images, pursuing the creation of new frameworks for curating and collecting visual media that escape static domains. We traverse diverse fields, forms of display and moments in time to foster social transformation through creative practices, and in particular women’s capacity for invention. Tangibly, we seek to establish a rich dialogue among artists and institutions working internationally through the valorization of artworks, commissions, and collaborative actions, while blurring disciplinary boundaries and expanding the concept of art beyond the functions established by tradition.
With its carefully curated initiatives, BilderAtlas is committed to creating timeless projects of expressive value, while continually experimenting with and reinventing forms and languages.

Bibi Tomasi (1925-2000) was an Italian writer, poet and journalist, among the founders of the Libreria delle donne di Milano (Milan Women’s Bookstore Collective). Known for her literary works such as Il paese di calce (Pratiche, 1999), La sproporzione (La Tartaruga, 1980) and I padri della fallocultura with Liliana Caruso (Sugar, 1974), she has been a prominent figure in the Italian feminist movement since 1970. During the feminist gatherings of the time, she took extensive series of photographs, one of which appeared on the cover of the Italian edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves by The Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, published by Feltrinelli in 1980. Her photographic materials are kept together with her written productions in the Archivio Bibi Tomasi at the Libreria delle donne di Milano. Al cerchio delle tue mani is the first book to collect the unpublished visual repertoire produced by Tomasi in the 1970s.

Michela Palermo A multifaceted figure in the publishing industry, Palermo is both a photographer and a designer. She is also the founder of Palermo Publishing, an independent press dedicated to contemporary book culture and rooted in feminist thought, archival research, and the visual arts. Her work centres on the poetics of the margins, viewing publishing as a performative and collective space for artistic exploration.

Prior to establishing her publishing house, Palermo worked as a photographer and exhibited her work internationally. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Political Science with a focus on Gender Studies and studied photography at the International Center of Photography in New York. Her curatorial and publishing approach is shaped by this transdisciplinary education. She currently divides her time between Palermo and New York, while maintaining a strong connection to Naples, where her family originates.

Palermo Publishing  is an independent press dedicated to promoting contemporary book culture from feminist perspectives and encouraging dialogue across disciplines. Focusing on the visual arts, archival practices, poetry, and contemporary artistic research, the press provides a space for experimentation and critical engagement. Its publishing approach is grounded in proximity, collaboration, and the transformation of artistic projects into books while preserving their conceptual integrity.

The catalogue includes titles developed in collaboration with artists, archives, and institutions, such as Whereupon by Allen Frame (US); Songs for the Birds and the Lonely by Dietmar Busse (DE); ALBUM 900 by Lucia Pescador (IT); and Viaggio in Sicilia di Lisetta Carmi, co-published with the Museo Civico di Castelbuono (IT).

Palermo Publishing also curates KIOSK, a programme that explores the artist book as a space for critical and performative practices. Through KIOSK, the press invites independent publishers, artists, and researchers to share their methodologies, activate printed matter through live formats, and reflect on publishing as a site of encounter and collaboration.

In 2025, Palermo Publishing will participate for the first time in the New York Art Book Fair and the Tokyo Art Book Fair, following previous appearances at The Art Chapter (Milan), the ICP Photobook Fest (New York). 

Allen Frame  is a photographer, writer, and curator based in New York. While studying at Harvard, he took photography classes with Henry Horenstein and connected with young artists in Boston, including Tommy Chesley, Randy Stevens, David Armstrong, and Nan Goldin, shaping a style that embraces intimacy and the subtleties of personal relationships. After moving to New York in 1977, he began photographing his circle of artist friends in moments that feel both spontaneous and staged, infused with emotional presence and narrative tension. His recent book Whereupon (Palermo Publishing, 2023) and the zine Whereupon: Turmoil (Palermo Publishing, 2024) revisit this early work through a layered approach, interweaving portraits of friends with stills from a theater piece he co-directed with Kirsten Bates in New York and Berlin in 1983–84, adapted from Sounds in the Distance by David Wojnarowicz. The zine also incorporates archival documents, a Wojnarowicz monologue, illustrations by James Romberger and Robin Hurst, and film stills by Frank Franca, and was launched with a live reading in Rome in 2024.

Alberta Romano is a curator and art historian. Since September 2024, she has been based in Campania, where in Naples she collaborated with the Madre Museum as Head of the Public Program, and in Procida she curated the reinstallation of the permanent collection at Palazzo d’Avalos. From 2019 to 2024, she worked as curator at Kunsthalle Lissabon in Lisbon, where she was responsible for both the exhibition and public programs, and contributed to the creation of the institution’s educational department. She writes texts for exhibitions, catalogues, and art publications such as Flash Art, Il Giornale dell’Arte, Contemporânea, Kabul Magazine, and Artforum, among others. With Nero Editions, she edited the publication The Cute and the Useful by The Cool Couple. She has been a Visiting Lecturer at NABA in Milan, Istituto Marangoni in Florence, and the Academy of Fine Arts in Urbino, Italy. Recurring themes in her research include the archive, cultural roots, popular culture, television, and, more broadly, an exploration of society through the analysis of individual behavior.