A new exhibition, "Wanda and Marion Wulz: Avant-Garde Photography in 20th Century Italy," is set to open at the Estorick Collection in London. Curated by Federica Muzzarelli, the show highlights the work of sisters Wanda and Marion Wulz, who used photography to assert women's independence during Italy's fascist era in the 1920s and 30s.
The Wulz sisters inherited their father's photographic studio in Trieste and used it as a means to create an autonomous future. They photographed modern women, including dancers, athletes, artists, poets, writers, and actors, challenging the societal expectation of women as solely mothers and homemakers.
Among the exhibition's highlights is Wanda Wulz's renowned image, "I + Cat," a self-portrait created by superimposing her negative onto that of the family cat, Mucincina. This work, along with the two original negatives, will be on display. Muzzarelli notes that Wanda aimed to explore female identity and the cat as a symbol of freedom through this technique.
The exhibition also seeks to re-evaluate Marion Wulz's role, presenting her as an equal partner in the photographic studio. Claudia Baroncini, director of the Fondazione Alinari per la Fotografia, which holds the sisters' archive, states that Marion's photographs from the liberation of Trieste in 1945 demonstrate her full involvement in their artistic partnership.