Chiara Fumai was born in Rome in 1978 and spent her childhood and adolescence in her parents’ hometown of Bari. In 1999 she enrolled at the Polytechnic University of Milan, where she graduated with a degree in Architecture in the academic year 2005–06 with a project for a panoramic tower in Busan, South Korea. The project was a response to the “Design for Busan Tower Complex” competition, held by the Busan International Architectural Culture Festival Organization for the purpose of remodeling the existing tower, situated in Yongdusan Park in the historical hilltop district of Jung-Gu.
During this period, Fumai became increasingly involved with the world of design, collaborating with the Segheria di Tanja Solci in Milan—a design lab and event space—and leading the Italian public relations for the Portuguese brand Krv Kurva. Starting in 2003, Fumai headed the artistic direction of the Lobby Night program at Rocket, a club in via Pezzotti in Milan, together with Marcello Bellan and Chiara Giuliani. Under her guidance, Lobby Night became an expansive event that brought together DJ sets and live performances by Italian and international musicians—focused on old school electro, disco and electroclash—as well as video screenings and design projects, reflecting the heterogeneous interests of the young artist. It was here that Chiara Fumai began to experiment with the turntable and to perform as a DJ, before assuming the name Pippi Langstrumpf. Her DJ sets under this pseudonym, which mixed Italo disco with techno and electro sounds, became known internationally.
In 2008, she founded the record label Dischi Bellini together with Elisa Colonna. The label released the compilation The Church of Pippi Langstrumpf (2009), a collection of tracks by musicians close to the artist, from Bottin to Club Silencio and the Fratelli Riviera. Over the years, numerous collaborations and friendships made up the “church” of Pippi, including those with DJ Maci (Marcello Bellan), Kiara Andres (Chiara Giuliani), la Nana Bianca (Alice Cannavà), DJ Nox (Sergio Gobbi), and Casco (Salvatore Cusato), the renown DJ/producer and Italo disco exponent.
2009 was a watershed year in Chiara Fumai’s career. Although she had already been active as a visual artist for several years—her first solo show at Careof, Milan, curated by Chiara Agnello, took place in early 2008, as did her first art residency at the Hoorn prison in Holland—Fumai’s participation in the 15th Corso Superiore di Arti Visive (now Artists’ Research Laboratory) at the Fondazione Ratti in Como, led by Walid Raad, marked a decisive turning point in her practice, which until then had been predominantly oriented toward video and installation. Influenced by the Lebanese artist’s insights into the relationship between reality and fiction, artist and audience, Chiara Fumai decided to dedicate herself mainly to performance, and in particular to the performance lecture. From 2009 to 2011, Fumai attended the Art Praxis MA program at the Dutch Art Institute in Enschede, where she was taught by Mark Kremer. She would return to the DAI as visiting professor in 2014–15, after having taken her performance work to dOCUMENTA(13) in Kassel (2012) and won the 9th Furla Art Award (2013) with the work Chiara Fumai Reads Valerie Solanas. This lastest distinction led to her exhibition at the Fondazione Querini Stampalia collection in Venice (I Did Not Say or Mean “Warning”, 2013) and her residency at the Wiels Contemporary Art Center in Brussels (2014). Her work was exhibited in numerous solo shows, including at MACRO Testaccio, Rome (2011); Muratcentoventidue, Bari (2011); APALAZZOGALLERY, Brescia (2013); FUTURA—Centre for Contemporary Art, Prague (2013); and Museion, Bolzano (2015). In 2015, on the occasion of CONTOUR 7: A Moving Image Biennale, Fumai realized The Book of Evil Spirits (2015), a video that documented her performative actions, presented in the guise of a spiritual séance; the work inaugurated a new chapter in her artistic practice. In 2016, she held solo exhibitions at waterside contemporary, London and Rosa Santos, Valencia, and spent a period of time in residency at Art Omi, NewYork, enabled by a scholarship from the Dena Foundation for Contemporary Art. She returned to New York the following year for a residency at the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP), as the winner of the New York Prize awarded by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities. Chiara Fumai ended her life in Bari on August 16, 2017.
The posthumous exhibitions dedicated to her work include the solo shows Nico Fumai: being remixed, Guido Costa Projects, Turin (2017) and Chiara Fumai: LESS LIGHT, ISCP, New York, curated by Kari Conte and Francesco Urbano Ragazzi (2019). In 2019, her work was included in the Italian Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale, curated by Milovan Farronato. The following year, the exhibition Chiara Fumai (2020), held at the Teatro Margherita in Bari, paid homage to the artist; the project was curated by Antonella Marino and The Church of Chiara Fumai, directed by Francesco Urbano Ragazzi. In 2020-2021, the extensive retrospective Poems I Will Never Release. Chiara Fumai 2007-2016 took place at the Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève curated by Milovan Farronato and Francesco Urbano Ragazzi, in collaboration with Andrea Bellini. It was later presented at Centro Pecci in Prato, in collaboration with Cristiana Perrella, and in 2022 at Casa Encendida in Madrid. A reduced version of the exhibition was also presented at La Loge in Brussels, in collaboration with Mara Montanaro. For the occasion, a monograph of the same name has been published (NERO, Rome), supported by the Italian Council program of the Ministry of Culture. It constitutes the most up-to-date and comprehensive study of the artist’s work to date.