Loredana Longo: Crossing the Line

“Crossing the Line” is the title of Loredana Longo’s new exhibition, curated by Irene Biolchini, which transforms Villa Rospigliosi (Prato) into a space where ruin and destruction become the starting point for creation and reimagining what violence and conflict leave behind: a devastated, precarious landscape.
Longo’s installation, open to visitors until 10th November 2024, invites those who cross its threshold to immerse themselves in the artist’s reality—one composed of remnants, broken bottles, trampled grass, and shoes with long nails, painful to both sight and touch, stripped of any functionality.

The installation “Stairway to Heaven” (2024) discourages viewers from seeking an escape or a light at the end of the metaphorical stairway of shards, flanked by an unstable and untreadable floor. In this unwelcoming environment, where the lighting only serves to cast ominous shadows on the walls, two hands in the corner hold up the shattered necks of bottles, celebrating a battle—or perhaps its end (“No one will win but we will all be hurt,” 2023).
Moving into the second room, the performance “VICTORY / what remains of victory is only its faded form” (2024) depicts young people trampling on the word engraved in grass by the artist. The word “Victory” has been recurring in Longo’s work since 2016, first in marble and then in various other forms. The reference remains the same: the televised image of a jihadist standing atop a column of a destroyed temple in Palmyra, arm raised in victory. The word also features in the performance that opens the exhibition, where the artist obsessively tramples over the word “Victory” written on a lawn, using her “Rugby high heels” (2024)—spiked shoes designed for the performance, which are displayed next to the video. Longo thus confronts the viewer as a witness to the action, making them a custodian of the memory of what has taken place, and a spectator of the perpetrator. The protagonists of the video, preceding the installation, offer a counterpoint to the artist’s performative action: victory is trampled by the violence of confrontation. In a context of increasing polarisation, where complex concepts are reduced to two opposing sides, the artist stages the battle, shifting the focus from the intensity of the clash to its destructive effect.
Visitors are therefore forced to face the vision of both the defeated and the victors, unable to ignore the losers and the wreckage that accompanies every victory. It becomes unavoidable to confront the crossing of boundaries and certainties, exposing oneself to a new world, led by the artist.

Loredana Longo has always highlighted the performative nature of her work, often using violent acts. This approach connects her to body art, performance art, and feminism, drawing inspiration from artists like Gina Pane. However, in this exhibition, the action is paused—there’s no blood, only a hint of an unreachable place, an impossible climb. There’s no ecstasy, just rubble and ruins. In 1976, philosopher Jean-François Lyotard noted that male power creates boundaries and restricts what it considers irrational. Over forty years later, Longo’s exhibition focuses on what lies beyond those limits. Her actions replace words, and the viewer becomes the final witness to a broken empire. By crossing the line, the goal isn’t to claim new ground, but to explore the unknown, imagining a world that acknowledges violence without repeating it.