Lucia Marcucci is one of the main exponents of Visual Poetry in Italy, best known for the vital and provocative irony of her verbal-visual compositions, in which she denounces the commodification of the female image and reveals the contradictions and ambiguities of the mass media.
Marcucci attended the Florence Fine Arts Academy for some time before moving to Livorno. In 1963 she invited the members of Gruppo 70 – founded that same year by Eugenio Miccini, Lamberto Pignotti and Antonio Bueno – to the conference “Arte e Comunicazione” [Art and Communication] at the Forte Belvedere. The group staged a performance, that would develop into Poesie e no, the complete version of which was shown at the theatre the following year after being presented at the Gabinetto Viesseux.
In this period Marcucci «experiments and works on literary collages, borrowing phrases, different languages, creating a kind of technological genre»: she creates works such as the poem L’indiscrezione è forte [Indiscretion is strong] and the manifestos L’Offesa [The Offence] Un proverbio cinese [A Chinese proverb], Il destino è nelle vostre mani [Fate is in your hands].
In 1965 she moved back to Florence, where she started working as a teacher in a high-school and officially became member of the Gruppo 70, which involved painters, poets and musicians (such as Antonio Bueno, Sylvano Bussotti, Giuseppe Chiari, Ketty La Rocca, Silvio Loffredo, Alberto Moretti, Luciano Ori, Lamberto Pignotti).
The group stood out for the interdisciplinary approach, for its verbal and visual experimentation and research aimed at investigating the possible relation between culture and mass communication through the codification of a new language, which adopted collages as its privileged means of expression. Marcucci shared the interest in these topics and practices; by using photomontages of magazine and advertising cuttings she carried out a sharp critique of the language used in the media and of mass communication.
Together with the group she took part in numerous exhibits, debates, performances, festivals and national and international conventions, for instance on the occasion of the many representations of Poesie e no.
Also in 1965 the artist came into possession of old film cans no longer circulating and decided to use the 16 mm films to create collages. Together with Bueno, Miccini and Pignotti she composed the “film poetry” Volerà nel ‘70 (It will fly in 1970), followed by Pugni, pistole e baci (Blows, pistols and kisses, 1966), Cavalcate (Horse rides, 1966) and Cinepoesia (“Film poetry”, 1967).
At the end of 1968, after the Gruppo 70 ceased working together due to disagreements, Marcucci took part in the activities – also working for the journal – of the centre Tèchne, founded by Miccini, and of the International Group of Visual Poetry (also called the Group of the Nine), which was born in 1971 around the journal «Lotta Poetica» thanks to the inspiration of Paul de Vree and Sarenco, a group that would however cease to work together only two years later.
Marcucci held her first solo exhibitions in the ‘70s: in Florence at the Studio Inquadrature 33, in Brescia at the Archivio Denza and at the Studio Brescia, in Venice at the Galleria Il Canale. In 1972 she worked on Il Libro come luogo di ricerca [Book as a place of research] curated by Renato Barilli for the 36th edition of the Venice Biennial, where she was invited to participate also in 1978 in the context of the show Materializzazione del linguaggio [Materialization of language] at the Magazzini del Sale, curated by Mirella Bentivoglio. On this occasion Marcucci presented the series Impronte [Imprints], works where the focus is on the presence of female corporeity, that mark the beginning of a new line of research with which the artist started to explore new forms of expression.
In the mid ‘80s Marcucci made use of pastel drawing, creating compositions of letters and images rich in symbolic references to alchemy.
She created also a series of works based on the material quality of the objects that she transformed into sculptures, going back to the practices used in the ‘60s.
From the 2000s onwards, Marcucci recovers and renews the never entirely abandoned practices of the 1960s and 1970s, with works based on the manipulation of advertising posters, glossy (and suitably retouched) icons of a perfect world, populated by new, imperfection-free divinities, which the artist distorts through superimpositions and erasures.
In 2003, the anthological exhibition Lucia Marcucci. Poesie Visive 1963-2003 [Lucia Marcucci. Visual Poems 1963 - 2003], curated by Lucilla Saccà, was dedicated to her at the Palagio di Parte Guelfa in Florence; in 2009 the artist participated with an artist's book in the exhibition Venezia salva. Omaggio a Simone Weil [Saved Venice. Homage to Simone Weil] curated by Vittoria Surian at Magazzini del Sale, a collateral event of the LIII Venice Biennial. In 2010, the exhibition Supervisiva [Supervisual] at the Frittelli arte contemporanea gallery, Florence; participation in the Malindi International Art Biennial curated by Achille Bonito Oliva. In recent years, she has taken part in numerous group exhibitions dedicated to verbal-visual research and the relationship between art and feminism, including Ennesima. Una mostra di sette mostre sull'arte italiana [Umpteenth. An exhibition of seven exhibitions on Italian art] at the Milan Triennale in 2013, Magma. Il corpo e la parola nell'arte femminile in Italia e in Lituania dal 1965 a oggi [Magma. The body and the word in women art in Italy and Lithuania since 1965] at the Istituto Centrale per la Grafica in Rome in 2018; in 2019 Il Soggetto imprevisto. 1978 Arte e Femminismo in Italia [The Unexpected Subject. 1978 Art and Feminism in Italy] at FM Centro per l'arte contemporanea in Milan; Doing Deculturalization at Museion, Bolzano, Intermedia. Archivio di Nuova Scrittura [Intermedia. Archive of New Writing] again in Museion and at Mart in Rovereto.
In 2020, for the fashion house Dior, Lucia Marcucci created the work Vetrata di poesia visiva [Visual poetry glass window], a large installation that transformed the setting of the Paris fashion show into a majestic stage with coloured images and light, recalling the sacred dimension of the polychrome stained glass windows of Gothic cathedrals.
In 2022, the MAMAC Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nice pays tribute to her with the exhibition Lucia Marcucci. Les secrets du langage.
In 2023, on the occasion of her 90th birthday, Arge/Kunst and Museion, in Bolzano, dedicate two exhibitions to her, L'Offesa [The Offense] and Poesie e no [Poems and no], respectively.
Moreover, also in 2023, MAMBO - Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna acquired the work Anarchism (1965), Centro Pecci in Prato exhibited the work Un proverbio cinese [A Chinese Proverb] (1964) in its permanent collection and Museion in Bolzano obtained funding from PAC - Piano per l'Arte Contemporanea del Ministero della Cultura for the acquisition of three works: Whop (1967), Alt! (1972) and Aa, Bb, Cc (1977).
