Benedetta Panisson

Biography	Academic Research and Art Practice I am currently engaged in my PhD research in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, Island, Sex, Photography: The Invention of Human and Animal Sexual Exorbitance. The project, first part of a tripartite research, analyses the aesthetics of human and animal sexualities in insualr spaces in the practice of Western photography from 1890 to 1930 . It explores how varieties of visual exoticism have emerged historically in island environments in response to colonial exploitation and cultural inter-dependence, and considers the involvement of direct and indirect ‘publics’, and the construction of an erotic-exotic visual space. I argue that visual encounters stimulate a contradictory attraction-surveillance dynamics, determining the interstitial character of sexual subcultures within both normative and experimental representation. I examine insular structures of feeling oscillating between practitioners, interpreters, and consumers of sexual photographic visualities.. The project alternates both the production of academic outcomes, and art exhibitions that explores human and animal sensual relationship with waterscapes. As an islander myself, I was born in Venice, I will determine an extended archipelago of island and ocean voices, gathering plurality and common grounds. My project draws on and extends a series of artistic projects exploring relationships between sexual communities and practices, and aesthetically constructed waterscapes and islands. Since 2004, I have engaged in a range of international art practice and curatorial collaborations, critical conversations, and site-specific exhibitions. My study interests and art practice are broadly concerned with photography, gender and queer studies, island studies, visual studies, feminisms, live performance, video installation, and water territories. 2024 Queering the Marriage of the Sea, at Materiality at the Intersection of Ecology and Religious Studies \| Conference \| Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice \| organized by the Giorgio Cini Foundation, Harvard Divinity School (Center for the Study of World Religions), Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (THE NEW INSTITUTE Centre for Environmental Humanities – NICHE, the Center for the Study of Lived Religion, and the Department of Asian and North African Studies), University College Dublin (Irish Research Council Government of Ireland). https://www.unive.it/data/33113/26/86967 2024 Sexual exorbitancein island and sea scapes, in Queering Nature, Antennae. A Journal of Nature in Visual Culture, vol. 63, edited by Giovanni Aloi. https://www.antennae.org.uk/ 2023 Sexual Display from the Abyss: Octopuses between Heteronormativity and Exorbitance. Published on Matter: Journal of New Materialist Research, Vol. 7, March 2023 https://revistes.ub.edu/index.php/matter/article/view/42245/39314 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1344/jnmr.v7i1.42245 2022 The Sexuality of the Uncontacted on a Video Tape, Cambridge University, Indigenous Studies Discussion Gruop, Cambridge, UK. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNRRlkBxhzY Sexual Display from the Abyss: Octopuses between Heteronormativity and Exorbitance, 11th European Feminist Research Conference, AtGender, Milano-Bicocca University, Milano, It. https://youtu.be/Ps09qpP_pOk?si=idmwT5E_laxeceZi Benedetta Panisson (1980, Venice) is a visual artist working with film photography, video, and performance, interweaving art practice with academic research. Her research focuses on relations between bodies and sea and island scapes, and how these relations produce a proliferation of erotic imaginaries. As islander herself, through an aesthetics made of maritime tropes, she approaches communities, intimacies, and sensual practices. She is engaged in a PhD research at Durham University, among visual and queer studies, focused on photography of human and animal sexualities in waterscapes, after a BA in History of Arts at Ca' Foscari University, Venice, and a MA in Performing Arts at Brera Academy. She has exhibited in international museums, galleries and institutions. In Italy she is represented by OPR Gallery, Milan. Among her participations and academic collaborations: Onassis Cultural Centre (Athens), TEA, Museum of Contemporary Art of Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain), OPR Gallery (Milano), Contingent Movements Archive (Maldives Pavilion, 55th Venice Biennale), Cambridge University, Antennae Journal, Bevilacqua la Masa Foundation (Venice), Royal College of Art (London), International Prize for Performance (Marina Abramovic/Centrale di Fies), Der Greif, Frieze Art/Paul Smith (London), Galleria Riccardo Crespi (Milan), UNESCO/COAL Prix (Paris), Galleria Civica di Arte Contemporanea di Trento, Centre International des Récollets, Furla Art Award, Project Space Berlin, Milano-Bicocca University, Centro Pecci, International Sarajevo Winter Festival, Istituto Veneto di Lettere, Scienze ed Arti (Venice), Ca' Foscari University/European Centre for Living Technology, La Guarimba Film Festival (Italy), Fotofilmic (Canada), Care of (Milano), Phroom.
Research Interests	Photography, queer studies, gender studies, island studies, art practice

Biography

Academic Research and Art Practice
I am currently engaged in my PhD research in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, Island, Sex, Photography: The Invention of Human and Animal Sexual Exorbitance. The project, first part of a tripartite research, analyses the aesthetics of human and animal sexualities in insualr spaces in the practice of Western photography from 1890 to 1930 . It explores how varieties of visual exoticism have emerged historically in island environments in response to colonial exploitation and cultural inter-dependence, and considers the involvement of direct and indirect ‘publics’, and the construction of an erotic-exotic visual space. I argue that visual encounters stimulate a contradictory attraction-surveillance dynamics, determining the interstitial character of sexual subcultures within both normative and experimental representation. I examine insular structures of feeling oscillating between practitioners, interpreters, and consumers of sexual photographic visualities.. The project alternates both the production of academic outcomes, and art exhibitions that explores human and animal sensual relationship with waterscapes. As an islander myself, I was born in Venice, I will determine an extended archipelago of island and ocean voices, gathering plurality and common grounds.

My project draws on and extends a series of artistic projects exploring relationships between sexual communities and practices, and aesthetically constructed waterscapes and islands. Since 2004, I have engaged in a range of international art practice and curatorial collaborations, critical conversations, and site-specific exhibitions.

My study interests and art practice are broadly concerned with photography, gender and queer studies, island studies, visual studies, feminisms, live performance, video installation, and water territories.

2024
Queering the Marriage of the Sea, at Materiality at the Intersection of Ecology and Religious Studies | Conference | Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice | organized by the Giorgio Cini Foundation, Harvard Divinity School (Center for the Study of World Religions), Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (THE NEW INSTITUTE Centre for Environmental Humanities – NICHE, the Center for the Study of Lived Religion, and the Department of Asian and North African Studies), University College Dublin (Irish Research Council Government of Ireland).
https://www.unive.it/data/33113/26/86967

2024
Sexual exorbitancein island and sea scapes, in Queering Nature, Antennae. A Journal of Nature in Visual Culture, vol. 63, edited by Giovanni Aloi.
https://www.antennae.org.uk/

2023
Sexual Display from the Abyss: Octopuses between Heteronormativity and Exorbitance. Published on Matter: Journal of New Materialist Research, Vol. 7, March 2023
https://revistes.ub.edu/index.php/matter/article/view/42245/39314
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1344/jnmr.v7i1.42245

2022
The Sexuality of the Uncontacted on a Video Tape, Cambridge University, Indigenous Studies Discussion Gruop, Cambridge, UK.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNRRlkBxhzY

Sexual Display from the Abyss: Octopuses between Heteronormativity and Exorbitance, 11th European Feminist Research Conference, AtGender, Milano-Bicocca University, Milano, It. https://youtu.be/Ps09qpP_pOk?si=idmwT5E_laxeceZi

Benedetta Panisson (1980, Venice) is a visual artist working with film photography, video, and performance, interweaving art practice with academic research. Her research focuses on relations between bodies and sea and island scapes, and how these relations produce a proliferation of erotic imaginaries. As islander herself, through an aesthetics made of maritime tropes, she approaches communities, intimacies, and sensual practices. She is engaged in a PhD research at Durham University, among visual and queer studies, focused on photography of human and animal sexualities in waterscapes, after a BA in History of Arts at Ca' Foscari University, Venice, and a MA in Performing Arts at Brera Academy. She has exhibited in international museums, galleries and institutions. In Italy she is represented by OPR Gallery, Milan.

Among her participations and academic collaborations: Onassis Cultural Centre (Athens), TEA, Museum of Contemporary Art of Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain), OPR Gallery (Milano), Contingent Movements Archive (Maldives Pavilion, 55th Venice Biennale), Cambridge University, Antennae Journal, Bevilacqua la Masa Foundation (Venice), Royal College of Art (London), International Prize for Performance (Marina Abramovic/Centrale di Fies), Der Greif, Frieze Art/Paul Smith (London), Galleria Riccardo Crespi (Milan), UNESCO/COAL Prix (Paris), Galleria Civica di Arte Contemporanea di Trento, Centre International des Récollets, Furla Art Award, Project Space Berlin, Milano-Bicocca University, Centro Pecci, International Sarajevo Winter Festival, Istituto Veneto di Lettere, Scienze ed Arti (Venice), Ca' Foscari University/European Centre for Living Technology, La Guarimba Film Festival (Italy), Fotofilmic (Canada), Care of (Milano), Phroom.

Research Interests

Photography, queer studies, gender studies, island studies, art practice