D Magazine’s Latest Issue Tackles Female Empowerment Via Creative Swap
MILAN — Creative swaps are a thing in media, too.
D, the weekly supplement of Italy’s progressive newspaper La Repubblica, helmed by Condè Nast veteran Emanuele Farneti, is debuting its latest edition as a joint effort with Flash Art, the cutting-edge contemporary art-minded magazine founded by Giancarlo Politi in 1967 and currently edited by Gea Politi.
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The issue is devoted to women’s empowerment and the unaddressed gender gap in Italy and elsewhere, taking on key topics like abortion rights, gender-based violence, gender pay disparities, caregiving and parenthood.
Hitting newsstands on July 2, the weekly glossy is particularly timely in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. It addresses abortion rights in Italy, where despite being regulated by a 1978 law, they are often hampered by bureaucracy.
D also contains features on violence against women and the misconception of women’s responsibility toward men’s abusive behavior; female contribution in providing care for the elderly and access to nursery schools and kindergartens (both seen as impacting women’s careers more than male counterparts), as well as the unresolved pay gap.
Marking a prominent section of the magazine, Flash Art hijacked the pages of D, running a portfolio of 10 up-and-coming Italian artists including Lorenza Longhi, Binta Diaw, Flaminia Veronesi, Corinne Mazzoli and Guendalina Cerruti, among other artists whose creative expression is highly politicized.
Among them, Agnes?, an Italian born artist who studied at London’s Camberwell College of Arts and is focused on performance art as a means to explore the relationship between humans and nature, fronts one of the magazine’s two covers, which bear the D and Flash Art logos. She was photographed by duo Nicholas Fols & Siermond.
“This is a special issue for many reasons.…It couldn’t be otherwise: D has always tackled female battles, which in some way are its reason for being. Today we want to discuss them leveraging the three languages representing our DNA: journalism, art and fashion photography,” Farneti said in his editor’s letter.
The second cover was shot by Sharna Osborne, a New Zealand-born photographer and filmmaker, stars a diverse cast of female artists and activists including Alice Krige, Farah Esset, Emma Matell, Ajok Daing and more. It was styled by fashion editor Vittoria Cerciello, who also curated the beauty and jewelry editorials, the latter fronted by the fashion editor’s four-year-old daughter.
The issue, titled The Superwoman Issue, is being presented with an event hosted by Farneti, Flash Art’s publisher and editor in chief Politi and Cerciello, at Milan’s Gucci store on Thursday.
The weekly publication is part of the rich portfolio of the GEDI Gruppo Editoriale media group, whose majority stake is owned by John Elkann’s Exor holding company.
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