It takes about half an hour for the drugs to take effect — during which Bianchi delivers a captivating art history lecture. Dressed for a night out in all white, she paces the stage, projecting behind her a series of performances by women artists who, like her, push their bodies to extremes. She is particularly focused on a 2008 piece by the Italian artist Pippa Bacca, who wore a bridal costume and hitchhiked across the Balkans and the Middle East to promote universal love. In Turkey, Bacca was picked up by a man who raped and killed her.