Patrizia
Ferri
Patrizia Ferri, art theorist, independent curator and journalist.
Since 1987, she has curated events and exhibitions at museums, foundations and galleries; Professor of History of Contemporary Art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome; PhD lecturer at Sapienza University; adjunct lecturer in Theory and History of Contemporary Art, DPTA – Architecture Department, Sapienza University. Department of Architecture, Sapienza University of Rome. Her areas of expertise include: the geography of art and visual ecology; the total work of art; aesthetic and ethical issues relating to the relationship between art and nature, space and society, and East and West; feminist resilience practices and ecofeminist activism; the city and the transformation of the contemporary museum; the concept of apocalypse and catastrophe in the contemporary imagination and in the avant-garde. She is also an expert on public art and integrated urban regeneration processes.
She lives and works in Rome.
Recent publications include:
‘Il Museo fuori di sé – da luogo deputato a spazio deflagrato’, (ed.), Proceedings of the MACROAsilo–Palaexpo Conference; 2019; various authors.’Contronarrazioni’, Castelvecchi Editore, 2021; various authors, Museo. Teorie, pratiche, politiche, Bordeaux, 2021; Various authors, Rome: nome plurale di città, 2021, Bordeaux; Periferi@, Castelvecchi, 2022; ‘La natura come modello: il paradigma naturale come metodo progettuale in Leonardo’, Scienze del Territorio magazine, in the section ‘Riflessioni sul progetto territorialista’, October 2022, UNIFI; ‘Waiting for the midnight, Natura e cultura catastrofi e utopie’, Castelvecchi Editore (2025)
Course content for the 2025/26 academic year
This course examines contemporary movements, trends and related theories, adopting a multidisciplinary and ‘geographical’ approach that views artistic developments as a kind of map of collective cultural memory, with the artwork serving as both a historical sign and an active conduit of memory, in line with the iconological theory of the anthropology of art developed by Aby Warburg (1866–1929), which has inspired the new paradigms of Visual Studies. Visual culture opens up a vast realm of experiences and images in the synergy between the ‘high’ and the ‘low’, thereby breaking down chronological boundaries and existing demarcations. The lecture topics serve as starting points that lead to cross-cutting pathways, tracing a dynamic map of interconnections.
Bibliography:
G. C. Argan, La storia dell’arte moderna – Volume 4
J. Nigro Covre ‘Le avanguardie artistiche’
F. Poli, ‘Arte contemporanea. Le ricerche internazionali dalla fine degli anni ’50 a oggi” (Contemporary Art. International Research from the Late 1950s to the Present). Illustrated edition
P. Ferri Waiting for the Midnight: Nature and Culture / Catastrophes and Utopias (2025)
The lecture notes, as well as the reading of critical and literary texts for further study, are considered an integral part of the course.