Furies Unbound: Nalini Malani’s “Of Woman Born” in Venice

Shadows swallow sight, but my ears find their way to a hall taken over by Nalini Malani. Her voice reverberates through the long, cavernous space of the ​Magazzini del Sale in Venice, at one point proclaiming vehemently, “The lust for power never dies.” The interior flashes with red and white light as semi-distorted, spectral figures continuously emerge and disappear, from close-ups of adult faces with wide eyes to scrawled silhouettes of children dancing, skipping, standing still, collapsing. Even as they flit from wall to wall, their presence is steadfast and hypnotic, accompanied by incisive quotes drawn from various literary sources, projected onto the chipped-brick surfaces: “Remember us—if at all—not as lost violent souls, but only as the hollow men”; “Hatred is a master of contrast / Above all it never tires”; “Who will ask the women?” Another quote, all in block letters, reads: “OUR POWER STRIPPED / CAST OFF.” 

26 June 2026