Beatrice Favaretto: Multiple Maniacs

Mare Karina is presents “Multiple Maniacs”, the first solo exhibition of artist Beatrice Favaretto.

Favaretto (b. 1992, Venice) is a visual artist whose practice blends moving image, performance, and installation, exploring themes of sexuality, intimacy, the body, and societal taboos. Drawing inspiration from 1970s Italian culture, American trash cinema, and experimental film, her work merges popular and alternative influences to create provocative visual and conceptual pieces.

The exhibition features the eponymous video work “Multiple Maniacs”, which was created as part of the Lydia Award for Contemporary Art, won by Favaretto in 2023. The work centres on Maximiliano Ulivieri, an activist advocating for the rights of people with disabilities in the realm of sexuality and intimacy. With close-up shots and a deep voice-over, “Multiple Maniacs” explores bodies as objects of desire, critiquing pleasure, shame, and liberation within the context of Italian moral conservatism. This radical piece dialogues with John Waters’ 1970s film of the same name, using cannibalism as a metaphor for consumption and moral violation.

Significant achievements by the artist include: recipient of the ArteVisione Prize, organized by Careof (2024); participation in the artist residency at Nuovo Forno del Pane, organized by MAMbo Bologna (2023); fellowship at Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa in Venice (2021); finalist for the DucatoPrize (2021); finalist for the inaugural edition of Biennale College Arte, curated by Cecilia Alemani and Marta Papini (2021); and recipient of the Artists’ Film Italia Recovery Fund, organized by Lo Schermo dell’Arte in Florence (2020). Favaretto’s work is part of the collection at GAMeC, Milan.