With its long history of ascents, exploration, and conquests, the mountain has been portrayed as a privileged space for a certain understanding of virility: heroic, competitive, disciplined, and at times military.
In this symbolic universe, long deemed naturally suited to men, women have frequently been excluded, marginalized, or treated as exceptions.
The exhibition Grado Zero. Mountains Beyond Genders, based on a dialogue between contemporary works and historical materials, stems from the need to decenter hegemonic masculinity, question the patriarchal genealogies of the mountain, and reflect on the relationship between patriarchy and the climate crisis. At the same time, it serves as a space for a fresh start, aiming to normalize the idea of an alliance between the masculine and the feminine, and guiding the way toward an achievable utopia: a mountain beyond gender.
From this perspective, the mountain is no longer merely a land to be conquered and exploited, but a space to be inhabited, protected, and re-imagined. It becomes the ground for a "relational posthuman ethics," capable of recognizing the interdependence between bodies, communities, and life forms, while recentering the sense of commoning, the care for life, and our shared home.
Piazzale Monte dei Cappuccini 7, Torino