Vanessa Beecroft

VANESSA BEECROFT (Genoa, 1969).
"Vb 08-36". Performance series, 2000.
Photographic print with Barnia UV. Copy 144/300.
With signed artist's label on the back.
Signed and justified on the back.
Measurements: 93 x 137 cm.
The work "VB 08-36" by Vanessa Beecroft is part of the wide corpus of performances that the Italian artist has developed since the nineties, in which the female body becomes the main vehicle of expression and the support of a critical discourse on identity, desire and the contemporary gaze.
In this image, derived from one of her performative actions, three women appear completely naked inside an architectural space of great sobriety. The polished wooden floor, the natural light that enters the room and the absence of furniture generate an atmosphere of almost clinical intimacy, which intensifies the presence of the bodies. The models adopt carefully studied postures: one sits with her legs tucked in and her gaze fixed on a point outside the frame, another squats in the background, and the third presents herself with her back turned, erect, in an attitude of a certain distance. All wear only sandals with thin heels, and in some cases a military cap, a detail that introduces a tension between vulnerability and uniformity.
The number "VB 08-36" inscribed on the image refers to the artist's own cataloguing system, which conceives each performance as a chapter within a continuous project. In this way, Beecroft gives her work an almost scientific, classificatory character, while documenting the transience of the action.
From an academic point of view, this piece addresses key issues in contemporary art: the status of the body in the exhibition space, the relationship between spectator and represented, and the influence of the language of fashion in the construction of female identity.

Vanessa Beecroft is an Italian artist whose production focuses on the exploration of the tableau vivant as a form of expression.The daughter of an Italian mother and British father, she spent part of her childhood in Malcesine, on the shores of Lake Garda. She later returned to Genoa, where she studied at the Liceo Artistico and graduated in Painting at the Accademia Ligustica di Belle Arti. He complemented his training with courses in the performing arts at the association "La chiave" of Campopisano, directed by Mimmo Chianese. He then entered the Faculty of Architecture, but finally moved to the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, in Milan, where in 1993 he obtained a diploma in Scenography.
Beecroft's artistic proposal is based on the conception and realization of performances in which she uses the bodies of young women, often half-naked, arranged according to precise choreographies. These actions are accompanied by lighting variations or musical commentaries that contribute to create the desired atmosphere. Each participant must follow rules established by the artist before each action, with the aim of building real "living paintings" that are presented in contemporary art galleries and museums. Beecroft's work critically reflects on the act of looking, desire and the dynamics of the fashion world, challenging the viewer and questioning the canons of female representation.
Her first performance took place at the Luciano Inga Pin gallery in Milan, during the Salon Primo of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera. A year later, in 1994, she had her first solo exhibition at the Fac-Simile gallery in Milan, where her then partner, the artist Miltos Manetas, was also exhibiting.
Since 1998, her performances have occupied spaces in prestigious international museums such as the Guggenheim in New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Kunsthalle in Vienna, consolidating her career in the global contemporary art scene.