Girls by Carolina Cappelli | Toast Project Space

Girls by Carolina Cappelli stems from a reflection on the representation of female characters in genre cinema—from comedy to horror—and on the ways in which cinematic imagery and the entertainment industry contribute to shaping and staging femininity.
The title Girls evokes a generic category of “girls”: on the one hand, an impersonal term referring to the secondary female roles that have populated the history of cinema—background performers, extras, and supporting characters, often marginal and without a point of view; on the other, it suggests a collective, and therefore the possibility of solidarity and alliance.
Drawing on this imaginary, Cappelli constructs an ambiguous space in which desire, spectacle, and menace coexist, revealing a tension between what is shown and what remains concealed. What initially appears as an invitation to look gradually transforms into something more unsettling.
Through references to voyeurism in the history of cinema, extending to the imagery of feminist horror, Girls questions the role of the gaze and its implications. Looking becomes an unstable act, suspended between attraction, projection, and control.
In Carolina Cappelli’s work, the body remains a central presence even when it is not directly exposed, fully aware of the gaze directed at it. Girls thus disrupts expectations surrounding conventional modes of looking and the categories of spectacle, creating a space that underscores the impossibility of a neutral gaze.