Ruben Montini, Oristano, IT 1986. He lives and works in Turin, IT
Performance after performance, Ruben Montini’s body tends more and more to become a simulacrum of signs and traces of what LGBTQI+ people still suffer today within contemporary society. While developing his actions and his textile works, Montini has begun to produce some collective projects in which he strives to involve the public in the production of temporary monuments and rituals that become ephemeral memorials for the minority of his community.
Italian philosopher Lorenzo Bernini writes: “Ruben Montini’s work is political even when it is intimate. Or, political because it!s intimate: As a gay man and heir of feminism, when Montini considers the universal he begins with himself, he protests the evils of the world by anchoring them to his personal experiences of injustice. Beginning from and returning to his body, he leaves little to abstraction.”

So as Eugenio Viola argues: “In the last fifteen years, Ruben Montini!s research has been developing coherently by directly attacking the heteronormative stereotypes linked to sex, sexual orientation and gender identities. He has been facing uncomfortable, yet current and critical subjects, by using performance as the preferred medium. These characteristics have determined the outcomes of a precise aesthetic strategy, which has marked the research of such a complex artist in the world of Italian performance art. Through the exhibition of his own naked body, flaunted, tattooed, humiliated, and sometimes wounded and bleeding yet glorified, Montini has enacted his Passion, his secular martyrdom. A Via Crucis composed of actions that reveal the topography of an imperfect body, a desacralised Ecce Homo. Montini has engraved on his body the traumas, the pain,
and the sufferance the Social Body inflicts on people who are considered "different!. It is a foundational part of his work, almost a part of his destiny. (…) In Montini’s oeuvre, the artist’s body coexists with the residues celebrating his body’s absence: performance, photography, and video, together with painting, drawing, installation, and embroidery, mixed with the residual traces of the actions themselves. Embroidery is central in Montini’s multifaceted artistic vocabulary. He re- contextualizes an activity usually connected to women’s duties and often relegated to the “minor arts” while turning it into a tool able to celebrate, ironically and polemically, the subversion of socially accepted norms, as it often happens in the artist’s work. (..) Montini has always used his body as a map of signs, a place to engrave cruel actions alternated to private, intimate moments.”

His work has been shown widely in international institutions, such as: Museo Etnografico Regionale ISRE, Cagliari, IT; Museo Bagatti Valsecchi, Milan, IT; Salòn Silicòn, Ciudad de Mèxico, MX; Penn University, Philadelphia, PA; tranzit.ro/Cluj, Cluj- Napoca, RO; <rotor> centre for contemporary art, Graz, AT; Rīgas mākslas telpa, Riga, LV; DumBO, Bologna, IT; NOMUS, The New Art Museum, Danzica, GD; Gallerie delle Prigioni, Treviso, IT; Kunsthalle Bratislava, SK; Casino Luxembourg Forum d’art contemporain, LU; GAMeC, Bergamo, IT; FdG Projects, Bruxelles, BE; CRUCE Arte y Pensamiento, Madrid, ES; Museum Arnhem, NL; Villa Adriana, Tivoli, IT; Aleš South- Bohemian Gallery, Hluboká nad Vltavou, CZ; Prometeogallery di Ida Pisani, Milano, IT; Fondazione MACC, Calasetta, IT; Dům umění města Brna, Brno, CZ; MKC, Spalato, HR; MAN_Museo d’Arte Provincia di Nuoro, IT; Museum Europäischer Kulturen, Berlino, DE; Museum for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Varsavia, PL; Centre of Contemporary Art, Torùn, PL; Museo Ettore Fico, Torino, IT; Oratoire du Louvre, Parigi, FR; Castello di Rivoli, Torino, IT.

Solo exhibitions

2025 Cosa resterà di noi Cosa resterà di me, curated by Efisio Carbone, Museo Etnografico Regionale, Cagliari, Italy
Come fuoco in una pozzanghera come fuoco spento, essay by Arnold Braho and Domenico de Chirico, Prometeo Gallery Ida Pisani, Milan, Italy

2024 Vorrei che questo fosse una canzone d’amore, Museo Bagatti Valsecchi, Milan, Italy
Io segno, Car Gallery, Bologna, Italy
Black with love, intact as a flower, two-person exhibition with Nazim Ünal Yılmaz and with participation of Sharon Hayes, curated by Övül Ö. Durmusoglu, Galleria Michela Rizzo, Venice, Italy
Altarpiece Mexico, Salòn Silicòn, Mexico City, Mexico
Altarpiece USA, Penn University, Philadelphia, USA

2023 Questo Anonimato è Sovversivo - The comprehensive exhibition, curated by Efisio Carbone and Camilla Pavan, Fondazione MACC, Calasetta, Italy
Le nostre ferItalye sono le ferItalye della storia, Collica & Partners, Catania, Italy
Questo Anonimato è Sovversivo, < rotor > Centre for contemporary art, Graz, Austria
Questo Anonimato è Sovversivo, Riga Art Space, Riga, Latvia
Questo Anonimato è Sovversivo, TranzItaly. Ro / Cluj, Cluj, Romania
Carne da Macello, curated by Elsa Barbieri, DumBO, Bologna, Italy

2022 Il vuoto addosso, essay by Elsa Barbieri, Museo Ettore Fico, Turin, Italy

2021 Altarpiece Poland, curated by Aneta Szylak, as part of the opening program of NOMUS, New Art Museum, Gdansk, Poland
Lame, essay by Eugenio Viola, Prometeo Gallery, Milan, Italy
Questo Anonimato E’ Sovversivo, Kunsthalle Bratislava, Slovakia
Questo Anonimato E’ Sovversivo, FKSE Studio Galeria, Budapest, Hungary

2020 Questo Anonimato E’ Sovversivo, Casino Luxembourg Forum d’art contemporain, Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Questo Anonimato E’ Sovversivo, Tech Arts, Vilnius, Lithuania
Amori che sono amori soltanto nella mia testa, Il Crepaccio Instagram Show, curated by Caroline Corbetta
Un Figlio Imprevisto, with an essay by Lorenzo Bernini, Varco Labile, L’Aquila, Italy
Questo Anonimato E’ Sovversivo, FdG Projects, Brussels, Belgium
Questo Anonimato E’ Sovversivo, Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, Dublin, Ireland
Questo Anonimato E’ Sovversivo, ACT Għajn Tuffieħa, Mellieħa, Malta
Le Paure Condivise, Prometeo Gallery Ida Pisani, online show, Italy
Questo Anonimato E’ Sovversivo, Cruce Arte y Pensamiento, Madrid, Spain
Habibi, Fondazione Macc, Calasetta, Italy

2019 Questo Anonimato E’ Sovversivo, Garage, Nicosia, Cyprus
Questo Anonimato E’ Sovversivo, Atopos cvc, Athens, Greece
Did you ever fall in love again?, curated by Andrea Bruciati, Villa Adriana, Tivoli - Rome, Italy
Madre, curated by Martin Vanek and Hynek Látal, Aleš South-Bohemian Gallery, Hluboká nad Vltavou, Czech Republic
Il vuoto addosso, essays by Angel Moya Garcia, Prometeogallery di Ida Pisani, Milan, Italy
Cosa Resta di Noi, curated by Efisio Carbone, Spazio Invisibile, Cagliari, Italy

2018 Questo Anonimato E’ Sovversivo, curated by Martin Vanek, The Brno House of the Arts, Brno, Czech Republic
Questo Anonimato E’ Sovversivo, Designcentrum, Östersund, Sweden
I couldn’t be without, curated by Tonci Kranjcevic Bastali, MKC, Split, Croatia
Camere Separate, curated by Claudio Piscopo and Stefano Mudu, Circolo Culturale Paolo Peroni, Venice, Italy

2017 Questo anonimato è sovversivo, curated by Micaela Deiana, MAN_Museo d’Arte Provincia di Nuoro, Italy
Questo anonimato è sovversivo, Museum Europäischer Kulturen, Berlin, Germany
One person protest, BWA Warszawa, Warsaw, Poland
Questo anonimato è sovversivo, Royal Needlework School, London, UK
Dove sto con me, con un saggio di Lorenzo Bernini, Prometeogallery di Ida Pisani, Milan, Italy

2016 Cosa Resta di Noi, at CloTHINK, with Dr Wessie Ling and curator Dominic Smith, Northumbria UniversItalyy, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
Lupa, essay by Andrea Ruggieri, Caffè Internazionale, Palermo, Italy
This is all I have to offer, Galleria Macca, Cagliari, Italy
La Vestizione della Sposa, Galleria Macca, Cagliari, Italy
Un altro te, Galleria Michela Rizzo, Venice, Italy

2015 Cosa Resta di Noi – Requiem, curated by Mara Ambrozic and Yvannoé Kruger, Oratoire du Louvre, Parigi, Francia

Selected Group shows

2023 Corpi, segni, storie, Babs Gallery, Milan, Italy
Il mio corpo è l’inferno, CONFINO, Turin, Italy
Shine Like a Diamond, Università degli studi di Trieste, Trieste, Italy
Dialoghi Contemporanei, curated by Andrea Busto, Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice, Italy
Living Centre, curated by Krzysztof Stanisławski, Centre for contemporary art Znaki Czasu, Torùn, Polonia
Keramikos, curated by Andrea Busto, CAR Gallery, Bologna, Italy
Experimentum Crucis, curated by Rosa Anna Musumeci, Ex Caserma Cassonello, Noto, Italy
Rosa Alchemico, curated by Miniartextil, Museo del Tessile, Busto Arsizio, Italy
Parole di pelle, curated by Eva Comuzzi and Orietta Masin, Magazzini del sale, Rivignano, Italy

2022 My body is a battleground, Piccolo Cinema Paradiso, Brescia, Italy
Rosa Alchemico, Fondazione Miniartextil, Como, Italy
Eclettica, curated by Andrea Busto, Museo Ettore Fico, Turin, Italy

2021 Re-azioni, antidoti ironici, curated by Luiss Business School, Spazio Taverna, Rome, Italy
Italian twist, curated by Elisa Carollo and Mattia Solari, Gallerie delle Prigioni, Treviso, Italy
Aliena Comune, Galleria Macca, Cagliari, Italy
In-Attesa, Prometeo Gallery Ida Pisani, Milan, Italy

2020 Living, forgiving, remembering, curated by Mirjam Westen, Museum Arnhem, Netherlands
Ti Bergamo, curated by Lorenzo Giusti and Valentina Gervasoni, GAMeC, Bergamo, Italy
A volte penso che..., Prometeo Gallery Ida Pisani, Lucca, Italy
Prima della Prima, CONFINO, Verona, Italy
Beyond Plastic, curated by Chiara Casarin, MUSE - Museo delle Scienze, Trento, Italy
Poster Quotidiano, Milan, Italy
Corpi sul Palco, curated by Andrea Contin, Museum of Contemporary Art, Rijeka, Croatia
Hombre, demasiado humano, curated by by Raúl Rodríguez, Porta Espacios, Venezuela
Corpi sul Palco, online
All Good Things, Manchester School of Art, Manchester, UK
They, Galleria Massimo Ligreggi, Catania, Italy

2019 Corpi sul Palco, curated by Andrea Contin, Teatro Linguaggicreativi, Milan, Italy
Passing, Prometeogallery di Ida Pisani, Miami, USA
A-Collection, curated by Chiara Casarin in collaboration with Bonotto, Palazzo Barolo, Turin, Italy
Heavenly Creatures – Strategies of Being and Seeing, Kunsthalle West Lana, Merano, Italy
Demons in a Line, curated by Alessandro Romanini, Prometeogallery di Ida Pisani, Milan, Italy
Cave Canem, Galleria Boccanera, Trento, Italy
Handle with care, School of curatorial studies, Venice, Italy
We will not change our show, curated by Martin Vanek and Gyula Muskovics, The Brno House of Arts, Brno, Czech Republic

2018 I am what I do with my hands, curated by Manon Comerio, MAAM, Cerea, Italy
Genius Loci, Maestri di Sardegna, curated by Efisio Carbone, MACC Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Calasetta, Italy
Yellow Ochre, Fondazione per l’Arte Bartoli-Felter, Cagliari, Italy

2017 Watch the line while crossing, curated by Alessandro Romanini, Chiesa di San Matteo – prometeogallery di Ida Pisani, Lucca, Italy
The Space Program, curated by Alex Urso and Styrmir Örn Guðmundsson, at Stroboskop, Warsaw, Poland
Bang! Festival, curated by Joris Van de Moortel, Begijnhofkerk, Brussels, Belgium
Notes on Italyn videoart, curated by Andrea Bruciati, Biennale Internazionale del Cortometraggio, Palazzo Valmarana, Vicenza, Italy

2016 Something Queer. Body, land of relantioships, curated by Antonio Leone and Andrea Ruggieri, Cantieri Culturali alla Zisa, Palermo, Italy
Out of Place_an ongoing archive, Peninsula, Berlino, Germania
Assemblaggi Provvisori, curated by Eugenio Viola and Angel Moya Garcia, Tenuta dello Scompiglio, Lucca, Italy

2015 Pomada, curated by Karol Radziszewski, Centre for contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Poland
Non la parola fine ma la fine delle parole, donation Renato Alpegiani, Museo Ettore Fico, Turin, Italy
Think of me, sometimes, Museo Ettore Fico, Turin, Italy
25 Jahre Künstlerhaus am Acker, Berlin, Germany
ID-entity, Mars, Milan, Italy
Flags, curated by Elena Forin – LaRete Art Projects, Serra dei Giardini, Venice, Italy
Turtle Salon in the Forest, curated by Malin Stahl, at Fargfabriken, Stoccolma, Sweden
Contribution to the project “Scriptorium Contemporain” by Chiara Zocchi, Salle de JesuItalyes, Bibliothèque de Valenciennes, Valenciennes, France

2014 Bienal del Fin del Mundo, Buenos Aires, Argentina
King Kong section, ArtVerona, Italy
Turtle Salon in the Forest, Sallbacken, Duved, Jamtland, Sweden
Vision Gymnastic, curated by Paolo Angelosanto, ArtStay, Ptuj, Slovenia
Le lacrime degli eroi, Demanio Marittimo km278, curated by Eva Comuzzi and Andrea Bruciati, Marzocca di Senigallia, Ancona, Italy
Teoremi, curated by Giulia Casalini and Roberta Orlando, Museum of Contemporary Art Villa Croce, Genoa, Italy
Untouchable gets messy, curated by Franko B, The Flying Dutchman, London, UK
Ne me quitte pas, Galleria Upp, Venice, Italy
Piece, routes of performance, curated by Pietro Caglianò, Teatro Studio Krypton, Florence, Italy
Esercizi di Stile, Galleria Maurizio Nobile, Bologna, Italy