Material Language, Situated Vision

Mirella Bentivoglio as a Methodological Model for Visual Research

Resumo

This article examines the verbo-visual practice of Mirella Bentivoglio (1922–2017) as a methodological model for research–creation and visual inquiry. Situating her work within contemporary visual methodologies, multimodal research, and interpretative ethics, the study argues that Bentivoglio’s artistic strategies function not merely as aesthetic experiments but as structured modes of knowledge production. Through the material interrogation of language, spatial organisation, fragmentation, and silence, her works mobilise verbo-visual forms as research devices capable of investigating the conditions of meaning, perception, and ideological construction.
Adopting a qualitative and interpretative framework grounded in visual analysis and research–creation, the article approaches Bentivoglio’s artworks as epistemic objects that actively participate in the production of knowledge. Close readings of Storia del monumento (1968), Gabbia (HO) (1966–70), and La scrittura del silenzio (1975) demonstrate how semantic displacement, spatial constraint, and absence operate as methodological tools that redistribute interpretative agency and foreground the viewer’s role as co-producer of meaning. These works expose the relational and contingent nature of interpretation while challenging regimes of visual authority and linguistic stability.
By positioning Bentivoglio’s practice in dialogue with contemporary debates on multimodality, participation, and ethical reflexivity, the article proposes verbo-visual creation as a transferable research framework. It ultimately argues that creative practice can function as a rigorous epistemic process, offering critical methodological insights for visual research concerned with embodiment, relationality, and the ethics of meaning-making.

Adopting a qualitative and interpretative framework grounded in visual analysis and research–creation, the article approaches Bentivoglio’s artworks as epistemic objects that actively participate in the production of knowledge. Close readings of Storia del monumento (1968), Gabbia (HO) (1966–70), and La scrittura del silenzio (1975) demonstrate how semantic displacement, spatial constraint, and absence operate as methodological tools that redistribute interpretative agency and foreground the viewer’s role as co-producer of meaning. These works expose the relational and contingent nature of interpretation while challenging regimes of visual authority and linguistic stability.

By positioning Bentivoglio’s practice in dialogue with contemporary debates on multimodality, participation, and ethical reflexivity, the article proposes verbo-visual creation as a transferable research framework. It ultimately argues that creative practice can function as a rigorous epistemic process, offering critical methodological insights for visual research concerned with embodiment, relationality, and the ethics of meaning-making.