Who was that Bald Woman in Monti?

On May 17 J. and I were exploring Monti while our women went to Madama Butterfly. We saw the forlorn market, discussed the Madonelle, and found the site on via degli Ibernesi, where the long-time residents of an apartment house, many of them elderly, were evicted to make way for elite tourism. Despite its age and charming, narrow, bricked streets, the neighborhood is in the the throes of gentrification, and we were soon to get a good dose of it, up close.

The real excitement in Monti on that evening was in a small piazza not far from the main square, just beneath the stairway that once led up to Angelo Mai. A private party, all roped off with yellow plastic strips like a crime scene, was goin' on. Mostly young people in black, sipping wine. At the center of things--the celebrity around whom the event was designed--was a young woman who was without hair--apparently (though not certainly) by choice. As we stood there, she was being interviewed, or so it seemed, though she was the one holding the microphone and managing the conversation. And down at one end were paintings of her lining a wall. Pop singer? Painter? Architect? Proprietor of hip new clothing store? Gallery owner? Cancer victim?

Who was that Bald Woman in Monti?

Bill