HIGHWAY TO POA

The MARGS acts as a reference for the gaucho capital in the South of Brazil. It is appreciated by locals but also foreighner tourists even if it there are no resources available for them in other languages. Regardless, art remains the most universal of the languages.

 

         The entrance to the building is lead by two sets of stairs. Once the steps are climbed, visitors can access to the first exhibition surveilled by security guards. The exhibition is called  « Utero, museu e domesticidade , geraçoes do feminino arte », there are numerous artists, more than fifty and they are exclusively women giving their point of view on femininity, housing and the maternity. The subject was chosen by the curator, Ana Zavadil often used to remind visitorsof  the clichés usually spreadt regarding the second gender.

 

         The exhibition providess the perfect occasion to demonstrate those stereotypes by divulguing works realised solely by feminine artists. The forms are different, as are styles and influences, .. But every piece of this puzzle seems to be there to denounce these stereotypes in countries where abortion remains punished by the law. The feminine complexity is here represented in all its splendour.

 

         Like this photography of Carla Borba, called Etroc where she stages a female body pushing a crate, close to the ground while her head is caged by a piece of fabric held back by a stone. The expression of the diffculty of being anchored in life because of mental preoccupations that you can not get away from? Closeby there is a metal and glass structure which is covered by the photograph of a woman, Veu de Veronica n°4 by Maristela Winck. She doesn’t have a mouth. The absence of the right to talk ? Further on there are nests in photographies and sculptures by Lurdi Blauth, a way maybe to remind us of the obligation for women have to create a home ?

 

         So many artists that are raising so many questions, the result is arranged in a particular way. The works are numerous, almost touching each other, a common thread giving free rein to one’s imagination, a better way to present Brazilian art : dense, warm, seemingly incoherent at times, and yet…