Paola Ugolini up next in Christian Dior podcast series Dior Talks

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Mar 11, 2020

Christian Dior's new podcast series, entitled Dior Talks, has unveiled its latest subject, Paola Ugolini, the noted Italian art critic and feminist.

Launched on International Women’s Day, the first discussion was dedicated to feminist art and curated by Maria Grazia Chiuri, the creative director and couturier leading Dior’s women’s division. Chiuri featured for this series a conversation with Judy Chicago - the noted feminist artist - who in January constructed a giant sculpture of a woman’s torso entitled "The Female Divine" for the set of Dior’s couture show inside the garden of the Rodin Museum.

The opening series of Dior Talks is hosted by Katy Hessel. A noted art historian, Hessel is behind the Instagram account and podcast @TheGreatWomenArtists. Like Chiuri, she is distinguished for wanting to illuminate the role of the female artist in society. In an era of female empowerment and the Me Too phenomenon, few designers have been as committed to feminism as Chiuri, whose most recent ready-to-wear show for Dior showcased a series of giant electric Agit-prop signs by the Claire Fontaine collective that hung from the ceiling and illuminated the whole show space.

In effect, Dior Talks is a series of exclusive conversations with artists, collaborators and friends of the house, that aims to encourage prestigious cultural figures to discuss their commitments and challenges in an open setting. One can stream the conversations through the following link: podcasts.dior.com. With more than 30 million followers on Instagram, Dior will guarantee a significant audience.

The subject of the next episode, Paola Ugolini, curates the "Io Dico Io" exhibition, or "I say I" in English - sponsored by Dior. "Io Dico Io" is a show of some 30 female Italian artists, reflecting on auto-representation and how femininity presents itself. Public speaking since ancient times has largely belonged to men, so this show is designed to enable women to be more assertive.