Lili Reynaud-Dewar: Teeth, Gums, Machines, Future, Society

What is cultural identity defined by? What influences the way it is constructed? Drawing on the liberation movements and subcultures of the twentieth century, Reynaud-Dewar explores the rules and stereotypes of a political, racial and sexual nature that forge an individual’s identity. The exhibition – the artist’s first solo show in an Italian museum – presents installations, videos and objects including the so-called grills, the teeth decorations that are a status symbol in rap and hip hop culture, which the artist provocatively appropriates. The fact of using grills to modify the human anatomy in turn recalls another key element of the show, the essay ‘A Cyborg Manifesto’ by the feminist scholar Donna Haraway, a metaphor for the blurring of the hard and fast dividing line between man, machine and nature in Western thought.