Grossi Maglioni (Vera Maglioni and Francesca Grossi, Rome, 1982) began their collaboration in 2006.
They live and work in Rome.
Grossi Maglioni is an artistic duo whose practice is grounded in a process-based, research-driven methodology, primarily articulated through performances, multimedia installations and workshops. Their work critically explores and challenges the symbolic, affective and political dimensions of relationships and care, questioning how these elements can inform, and occasionally subvert, the way we engage with dominant narratives and representations, and taboos.
By combining interdisciplinary fields of knowledge and working strategies, Grossi Maglioni conceive their artwork as a moment of verification and redefinition within an ongoing process of deconstruction and creation, which evolves through interaction with both the audience and the context, generating a dynamic space for continuous negotiation. Manipulable objects, installations, and imaginary devices act as tools to performatively mediate across research areas and audiences, while the materials they choose, often suggestive of hospitality and regeneration, along with workshops, lectures and public events contribute to transform these works into environments that invite participation and collaboration. These activities are seen as an opportunity to open up to the complexity and meanings of the artwork itself, while also exploring issues of subjectivity, authorship, and education, turning each encounter into a shared exploration of both thought and perception.
Working with magical, esoteric, or folkloric elements, as well as with different grammars and languages, Grossi Maglioni invites us to reimagine the world and the visual, narrative and political structures that shape it. Through this process, they encourage reconnection with the most desiring, monstrous, and generative aspects of ourselves, offering a space for transformation and reinvention.
After graduating respectively from the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome and Sapienza University of Rome, they completed an MA in Culture and Media Production at Linköping University, Sweden.
Their artistic practice is complemented by their teaching activities, including workshops at various associations, museums, and schools such as the Zentrum Fokus Forschung at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, the Master’s in Gender Studies and Policies at Roma Tre University, the I.C. Pio La Torre Primary School in Rome, Fondazione smART – Polo per l’arte in Rome, Solidrinks – Empowerment & Support for Refugees e.V. in Berlin. They also teach at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome and Frosinone.
Their works have been exhibited in galleries, public spaces, museums, and academic institutions, including: MACRO Museum, Rome (IT); KORA Contemporary Arts Center, Castrigano de’ Greci (IT); Supernova, Rome (IT); Palais Carli, Marseille (FR); Fondazione Baruchello, Rome (RM); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Lissone (IT); Picture Gallery, Kaunas (LT), <rotor> center for contemporary art, Graz (AT); Kunsthalle Bratislava (SK); Novo Kulturno Naselje, Novi Sad (RS); Istituto Svizzero, Rome (IT); AlbumArte, Rome (IT); American Academy in Rome (IT); Viafarini, Milan (IT), Verkstad for konst, Norrköping (SE); Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne (AU); ERBA – École Régionale des Beaux-Arts de Besançon (FR); Konstall Museum, Vaasa (FI).
In 2019, Grossi Maglioni were among the artists selected for the MiBACT Grand Tour d’Italie. In 2021, they won the 10th edition of the Italian Council, promoted by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity (DGCC) of the Ministry of Culture, and in 2023 they presented the related publication at MAXXI in Rome. In 2022, they received the Fondazione Cultura e Arte Special Prize/International Section of the Talent Prize and the Contemporary Didactics prize from Fondazione smART. In 2022, they also won the Creative Living Lab Edition 4 – Places to Regenerate call, promoted by the DGCC of the Ministry of Culture, for a series of workshops and a permanent public work in the Quartaccio neighborhood of Rome.
Their texts and works have been published in numerous catalogues and magazines. In 2023, the monograph Beast Mother, published by Postmedia books, was released, which collects their most recent artistic work.
As a result of their ongoing interest and work on the theme of motherhood, in 2021 they co-founded, together with a group of artist-mothers, the research and activism collective The Glorious Mothers.
