“Lonely Are All Bridges’, ICA – Institute of Contemporary Art, Milan’
Mariacarla Mole, Artforum
February 2025
On my way to visit “Birgit Jürgenssen and Cinzia Ruggeri: Lonely Are All Bridges,” I had two images lingering in my mind. The first was the iconic 1974 self-portrait of Jürgenssen with her face glamorously obscured by a fox-pelt mask. The second was an equally striking image of Ruggeri’s ziggurat dress on the cover of Matia Bazar’s 1984 synthpop album, Aristocratica. Despite my efforts, I couldn’t immediately determine a connection between these two artists. Yet the exhibition—deftly curated by Maurizio Cattelan and Marta Papini—emphasizes visual parallels between the two artists and their ironic use of fashion accessories as devices to interrogate gendered roles in society. […]