Vision and presence 2024: performance cycle

The second lecture in the performances cycle “Vision and presence”, in this case given by the Argentinian writer Kekena Corvalán, a feminist curator and professor of Latin American art. She will be presenting the “Red Artchivas” [Women’s art/archive network] research and fieldwork project which, for the last fifteen years, has aimed to amplify the pathway of women and protest through collective, territorialised and self-aware artistic practices. 

The study focuses on two groups which produce their work from the starting point of friendship between women artists: the “Pipi Shermans” (Claudia García Lorente and Julieta Basso), residents of Mar del Plata, and the “Caudillas del Barro” (Susana Zapata, Tina Núñez Caminos and Luciana Pirro), residents of Victoria, Entre Ríos. 

From an Absurdist standpoint, the first engages in delirious formal exploration and in the lack of meaning which emerges from the unexpected, reinstating uncertainty in the ludic gesture of the domestic realm, before the vast sea where the Atlantic reaches the coast of Argentina. The second looks at how wetlands and water hyacinths are being damaged, with the artists applying mud to themselves and reinstating the ancient arts of the fire and performance in the context of environmental, patriarcal and castigatory abuse, both within and outside the art world. 

In both cases, embodied activism becomes living art and individual creation disappears as the loving gesture between the artists empowers all.

In this performance Estíbaliz Sádaba revives a series of women artists forgotten by the hegemonic discourse, which is nourished by a linear vision of art history based on chronological and hetero-patricarchal criteria. With each participative piece the Bilbao-born Sádaba invites the public to write the names of these artists and to stick them on a blank canvas.

The Bolivian artist Alejandra Dorado pays tribute to the street sellers of her native country who, in a context characterised by poverty, unemployment and low quality of life, support the family economically while also doing housework, which brings no financial benefit but occupies part of their time.

Women in Africa are the bedrock of the family, responsible for the household tasks and the education of their children. Nonetheless, they are prohibited from taking part in crucial decisions over the future of the village, participating in rituals and playing certain instruments such as drums. In this performance the Guinean artistsAlexia Ricoso, Dolores Nchama and Emiliana Merino give voice to and champion all these silenced women through a sonorous performance.

Aniova Prandy seeks to make visible and create accounts that update our experience and relationship with the past, focusing on memory and the need to honour the dead. Through a tour of the museum this Dominican artist pays tribute to all the African and Taino women who were enslaved on their arrival in Santo Domingo in the 16th century.

Verónica Vides focuses on the ecosystem of forests as the symbol of a perfect system and one fundamental for life, which human beings have nonetheless been destroying for centuries from a patriarchal position based on economic gain. In this performance the Salvadoran artist, wearing a cloak made of fallen branches, undertakes a tour around different works in the collection which depict forests, placing a crown of lilies below each one.

Rosa Cabrera refers to patterns of behaviour and morals that aim to position themselves as ideas established in the community. In this performance the Cuban artist sets out to subvert these hegemonic notions of power in order to understand their distorted aspect.