JANNIS KOUNELLIS, CARLA LONZI AND THE APPROPRIATION OF THE WORKERISM MOVEMENT'S IDEAS IN UNTITLED (12 HORSES) AND AUTORITRATTO

The focus of my thesis is the appropriation of the methodology of Workerism in Untitled (12 Horses) by Jannis Kounellis and Autoritratto by Carla Lonzi. The project started out of my curiosity for the history of "poor" material choices of the Greek artist. The turn toward a more sociopolitical analysis was facilitated by the reading of L'orda D'oro, a book about the Italian cultural revolution that coincided with 1968. Through the book, I learned about the concept of con-ricerca, the methodology of the workerism movement. Con-ricerca is based on gathering first-hand experience of factory life and oral interviews of workers. I realized that there were parallels between the methodological approach of con-ricerca and the immersive dialectic that Kounellis established between the viewer of Untitled (12 Horses) and the composition itself and between Carla Lonzi and the artists she interviews in Autoritratto.