Zanele Muholi. A visual activist

For the past 10 years Zanele Muholi (Umlazi, South Africa 1972) – one of the most interesting voices of Visual Activism – has been in the Olympus of the most celebrated contemporary artists. His arstistic work coincides in toto with his credo: Muholi likes to call himself an activist, even before he feels – and is – an artist.

Her art tirelessly investigates issues such as racism, Eurocentrism, feminism, and sexual politics, and is in constant transformation even though the most powerful medium of expression, which has forced her to the general attention worldwide, is photography.

“Muholi. A Visual Activist” is the project through which Milan’s Mudec brings to Italy a selection – curated by Biba Giacchetti and the artist – of more than 60 images, magnetic shots of social denunciation that range from the very first self-portraits taken to the most recent works, in which Muholi turns the camera toward himself, exposing himself in the first person.

With this gesture, she renounces her own gender identity in order to represent a collective identity that gives voice to the black homosexual community through photography, and in particular self-portraiture. The camera thus becomes for Muholi a weapon of denunciation and simultaneously of salvation.

AUTHOR
Biba Giacchetti – For 15 years she has worked with some of the most famous photographers on the international scene such as Steve McCurry, James Nachtwey, Elliott Erwitt. With Giuseppe Ceroni he founded the Sudest57 agency in 2002, with which he has curated numerous exhibitions and publications in Italy and abroad.