This practice-led, fine art research project explores the intersection of three historical expressions of political protest in Rome: the satirical poetry of Catullus, the ‘Congregation of Wits’ and the pioneering feminist collective Rivolta Femminile.

These apparently diverse historical practices and traditions are linked by the opportunities they provided for queer, working class, and marginalized subjects to speak to—and against— the extant structures of power. Drawing on academic research into the voice as an instrument of political resistance and self-identification, and using collage as a technique appropriate to the subject matter, this project will be realised as a publication, an exhibition of new video works, installations and collages.

This research is carried out by artist and British Academy postdoctoral fellow Dr Eloise Fornieles, who uses collage in multiple forms to serve as a means of finding links between historical periods and political contexts. This work highlights intersections between different forms of resistance and expression without flattening out the differences between them.