L’esperienza separatista della Cooperativa di Via del Beato Angelico. Un programma espositivo verso una possibile coesione fra arte e femminismo

With the manifesto Assenza della donna dai momenti celebrativi della manifestazione creativa maschile (1971), Rivolta Femminile advanced the prospect of a specifically female, non-patriarchal creative practice. Yet, under Carla Lonzi’s influence, artistic activity and feminist militancy soon came to be cast as irreconcilable. Situated within this dichotomous framework is the Cooperativa di Via del Beato Angelico (CBA), the first permanent exhibition space in Rome run by women. Between 1976 and 1978, the cooperative curated a programme that not only promoted both emerging and established women artists, but also sought to recover figures long forgotten or marginalised. The opening of autonomous spaces proved essential to fostering creativity independent of patriarchal structures. By analysing the CBA’s exhibition calendar, this paper considers whether separatist strategies facilitated a genuine convergence between art and feminism, suggesting that the cooperative’s enduring legacy lies less in definitive resolutions than in the ongoing affirmation of feminism as a plurality of voices.