Curators: Giuseppe Garrera, Cesare Pietroiusti
Co-curator: Clara Tosi Pamphili

The exhibition Pier Paolo Pasolini. Porcili at Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.) explores the “corpo” (body) of Pasolini through a rich array of original materials, including photographs, films, newspapers, books, and film costumes. It traces his work and ideas, highlighting the visionary life and career of the director, poet, and thinker. Known for his radical views and rebellion against social conventions, Pasolini often sparked controversy in Italian society from the 1950s to the 1970s. His affiliation with the Communist Party and his open homosexuality made him a provocative figure. He faced public ridicule and legal troubles, and was murdered in 1975 under unclear circumstances. The exhibition at n.b.k. chronicles these events, shedding light on the harsh persecution Pasolini endured. It documents the systematic discrimination faced by a dissident who celebrated the body as a site of self-determination amidst a backdrop of courtrooms, street attacks, censorship, and ridicule.

The title of the exhibition at n.b.k. refers to Pasolini‘s 1969 film Porcile (The Pigsty), in which the director created a drastic allegory of societal decay. To the public, the judiciary, politicians on both the right and left, the Catholic Church, and the Italian bourgeoisie, Pasolini was a reprehensible figure, a cause for scandal, a “pig”. He openly inhabited and frequented places and environments they scorned as “pigsties” (porcili). His works, publications, and his entire life articulated love and admiration for the Italian underclass. He expressed himself blasphemously, defended sexual pleasure, and rebelled against all restrictions imposed on the body. In Porcile (The Pigsty), Pasolini used a radical subversion of values, symbolizing both resistance against a hypocritical society tainted by its fascist past and a reflection of the degradation Pasolini himself faced.