Dear men, we tell you about the G-spot: the poetic provocation of 200 women that breaks every taboo

In a world that still struggles to ensure gender equality in many areas of social, economic and cultural life, festivals dedicated to women represent much more than simple events: they are vital spaces of recognition, listening and transformation. Celebrating women through a festival is a symbolic and concrete act that contributes to changing the collective narrative, restoring voice, visibility and dignity to female experiences.

The Festival of Letters

And that is exactly what the Festival delle Lettere does, the first and most important Italian event that for 20 years has celebrated epistolary writing through a competition that intertwines emotions and words with the most diverse art forms. The guiding theme of the latter will be Letter to a Woman : this year's edition of the Festival is aimed at women of all times who inhabit and change the world, at their differences, their thoughts, the challenges they face and the desires they cultivate. The theme of the year, so current and significant, will come to life on the preview evening of June 21 in the Salone Pio XII of Casa Schuster . For the first time, the Festival delle lettere will be divided into an extended program with exhibitions and events that will enliven the prestigious location of the Fabbrica del Vapore from June 26 to July 31, 2025.

Notes G and the 200 women represented

Through shows, readings , workshops, performances and a day (June 29) dedicated to Palestinian Women with a fundraiser for the Women with Gaza network, the Festival highlights female talent in all its forms. Female talent that is perfectly visible in the photographs of Laila Pozzo who, together with Rita Pelusio and with the collaboration of the journalist Assunta Sarlo, gave life to the exhibition Appunti G. An unprecedented artistic, collective and poetic act, decidedly 'pop', to maintain - today more than ever - attention on extremely current issues, but with a positive spirit of sharing and union, which gave life to over 200 portraits of women and a letter G as a symbol of identity, beauty and freedom. In short, a dot, that G, which unites art, body, sexuality, education and cultural taboos.

The photographic exhibition as an “instruction manual“ for men

And to better understand where the idea for the exhibition came from and whether there are still taboos in Italy when talking about female pleasure , we interviewed Laila Pozzo who also revealed to Luce! which false beliefs about the G-spot she wants to disprove.

How did the idea for this exhibition come about and what is the main message you want to convey through this series of photos?

“I am a happy performer because the idea for the exhibition came from that genius Rita Pelusio. When she proposed it to me, I immediately took a leap of faith. Then I was also a little afraid because I am very cautious about women's work. I find it to be very slippery terrain and therefore we need to find a new key given the many projects. And together with Rita and the group we found it in irony. Because often when we talk about certain topics we tend to be a little more serious. So it's fine to do it but it was right to set some limits. Luckily with Rita, it was simple, it came naturally to throw it into irony. Even if in photography the latter is not always easy to represent. Luckily, to be honest, the women and those we chose helped us a lot. Because initially I had decided to photograph only the four protagonists of the theatrical show. Then we decided to also ask some of our friends to pose and have them tell us something about female pleasure. In our heads we thought of doing one thirty, then things got out of hand."

How do you photographically translate something that is not visible but extremely symbolic?

“The women helped us a lot. We helped each other in selecting the latter. And above all, the thing traveled a lot by word of mouth. Those who participated and saw the spirit suggested women who could be right for us. Then of course the meaning was explained to everyone before the photo shoot because obviously most people at the beginning said “wait, but do I have to talk about my sex life?”. Actually, no, it's a metaphor for pleasure in a broad sense”.

It is a photographic exhibition that depicts more than 200 women. Can we say that, thanks to it, men find infinite material in which to recognize and recognize themselves, from which to steal secrets and truths, until they discover what lies behind and inside a woman?

“Absolutely yes. For me the two fundamental things were precisely this ironic cut and the fact that this exhibition had to be material to communicate something to others. Man must not be excluded. It is a basic project also addressed to men. It must be a sort of instruction manual.”

Taboos on female pleasure still present in Italy

What was the biggest challenge in dealing with this theme photographically? Because you photographed themes such as gender equality, self-acceptance, identity, rights still denied, gender gap and body positivity

“It was more of a difficulty in selecting the women. The photographic difficulty was not to fall into repetitiveness. And I still have a lot of fear about this. In fact, at the beginning I said “OK, but after twenty/thirty, what else do you want to photograph?”. After all, they will all show us their elbow, their cheek and that’s it. Instead, apart from a few more daring women, the thing was that even on the same part of the body very different stories came out. We opened Pandora’s box a bit and it was a lot of fun.”

Do you think that in Italy there is still a taboo in talking about female pleasure? In this sense, does your exhibition break this silence?

“In my opinion, even though there are several very valid initiatives, for example MySecretCase where they manage to talk about sexuality in a very intelligent and youthful way and do what sex education should do in schools, the fact remains that it is a somewhat unpleasant topic. In fact, we also struggled to find sponsors because there are few companies that take a stand on these issues. So there is certainly still some hesitation in tackling the matter.”

Myths to dispel

What myths or false beliefs do you want to deconstruct through the exhibition?

"The idea is that, even physically, this famous G-spot, even if you try so hard to get there, if you don't bring everything else with you, you won't get there. Maybe from that point of view there's a bit of a difference between men and women because it's a bit easier for the former to get there while for the latter it takes a bit more effort. Women are influenced, we like everything, it's not just that specific place. Making people understand that there isn't a single geographical point and that everyone is different and therefore there's no point in going looking for it."

After this project, what do you take with you, as a woman and as an artist?

“It was very interesting also because another hesitation I had in tackling this project was that I am one of the most abstract people on earth. I was a little terrified at the beginning because I wondered if I was the right person to tell this story. Then I have to say that I learned a lot from these women. That's the beauty of this job and this project. You have the opportunity to meet and if you want to, you can learn something. And these women who accepted wanted to tell their stories and get involved. They were very fun moments.”