In dialogue with Federica Bueti, Paolo Caffoni, Adriana Casalegno, Christina Chalmers, Luisa Lorenza Corna, Raphaël Cuomo, Chiara Figone, Allison Grimaldi Donahue, Maria Iorio, Alex Martinis Roe, Ariane Müller, Traudel Sattler, Stephanie Weber, Giovanna Zapperi.
This artist book is a close reading and polyphonic discussion of another book: Vai pure. Dialogo con Pietro Consagra by Italian feminist writer Carla Lonzi, who published the slim volume in 1980 with Scritti di Rivolta Femminile in Milan.
Commentaries. Vai pure, Carla Lonzi brings together different approaches to Lonzi’s thinking, the political dimensions of her life and work, and their resonances today. Building on the question of how to engage with a book written in a language she does not speak, Meunier provides a space in which translation is recognised as a dialogic practice. The series of 26 conversations with 14 different people presents a non-linear, convoluted, and transgenerational view of the processes of translation and of understanding. At the same time, it offers different perspectives on the historical context of Lonzi’s writing, raising questions about art, productivity, recognition, and feminism today.
Published with b_books Berlin, 2026 >>>
Concept, production, editing: Karolin Meunier. Conversations with: Federica Bueti, Paolo Caffoni, Adriana Casalegno, Christina Chalmers, Luisa Lorenza Corna, Raphaël Cuomo, Allison Grimaldi Donahue, Chiara Figone, Maria Iorio, Ariane Müller, Alex Martinis Roe, Traudel Sattler, Stephanie Weber, Giovanna Zapperi. Copy editing: Phoebe Blatton, Hannah Gregory; Typography: Till Gathmann; Editorial advice: Luisa Lorenza Corna, Hannah Gregory, Clio Nicastro, Mirja Reuter. And many thanks to everyone who supported the project along the way.
The conversations also form the basis for performances and readings.
Related works and performances:
Übersetzungsszenen
Reading and book presentation, Kunstverein Bielefeld, 2026
Scenes of Translation
Reading at Rejecting Closure, workshop organised by Annika Haas, University of Hildesheim, 2025
Detach. A Commentary on Carla Lonzi’s „Vai pure“
Performance (with Sophia Eisenhut, Clio Nicastro), GfZK Leipzig, organised by Clio Nicastro and Max Walther, 2023
You Can’t Do Without
Text and postcard in: c0da.org, a publishing platform and research project by Katrin Mayer, 2022
Übersetzung als Gespräch
Text in: The Poetry of Translation. Ed. Judith Waldmann, Merano Arte. Milan 2022
Übersetzung – unter anderen Bedingungen
Vortrag in: Kunst, Forschung, Geschlecht, Universität für angewandte Künste Wien, 2021
Feminism. Podcast with Federica Bueti
Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof, Hamburg 2020
A Commentary on „Vai pure“ by Carla Lonzi
Performance (with LJ Jeschke) at Lenbachhaus München. Part of the exhibition Radio-Activity, 2020
Lesung, Film, Gespräch
Reading and a screening of Scuola senza fine (Adriana Monti, 1983), Villa Romana, Florence 2019
Now You Can… Discuss
An Evening on Carla Lonzi, with Federica Bueti and Hannah Wallenfels, diffrakt, Berlin, 2018
From Where I Stand: Between Theory and Pose
Reading. Workshop organised by Oona Lochner and Isabel Mehl, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, 2017
On Vai pure
Performance (with Will Holder), in: Politik der Freundschaft II, curated by Anna Jehle, Kilian Schellbach, Juliane Schickedanz, Anna Voswinckel, KV Leipzig, 2017
On Vai pure by Carla Lonzi
Text in: Klassensprachen #0, Written Praxis. Ed. Manuela Ammer, Eva Birkenstock, Jenny Nachtigall, Kerstin Stakemeier, Stephanie Weber, Berlin 2017
Über die Arbeitsweise
Text, in: Wifi muss sterben, Ed. Stephan Janitzky, Sebastian Stein, 2018
Postcard I: Fragment of a conversation with Federica Bueti and Alex Martinis Roe. In: Politik der Freundschaft, exhibition, KV Leipzig 2017
Postcard II: Fragment of a conversation with Paolo Caffoni. In: Ein Pfund Orangen, exhibition, Kunstverein Ingolstadt 2019
Postcard III: Fragment of a conversation with Maria Iorio and Raphaël Cuomo. In: Radio-Acitivity, exhibition, Lenbachhaus München 2020
Postcard IV: Fragment of a conversation with Luisa Lorenza Corna. In: Radio-Acitivity, online program, Lenbachhaus München 2020
Postcard V: Fragment of a conversation with Chiara Figone. In: c0da.org, 2022
Postcard VI: Fragment of a conversation with Giovanna Zapperi. On the occasion of my PhD at HFBK Hamburg, 2024
Postcard VII: Fragment of a conversation with Adriana Casalegno. Backcover of Commentaries. Vai pure, Carla Lonzi, 2026
