Since 1994, Beth Moysés has taken up the bridal gown as instrument for symbolical articulations of love relationships and all that concerns them.
At first, she lined a chapel ceiling with an arsenal of bridal gowns. Raised to the heights, they spoke of pledges, exposed failed expectations, and attested to the literal absence of a firm footing. Hanging by their skirts stuffed with fabrics, the anonymous, “bodyless” dresses exuded loneliness and disenchantment; they suggested a field mined with tears.
At present, the disenchanted criticism is replaced by a vigorous performance-manifesto. The gowns are finally being (re)occupied. Having descended to the ground, they are now inhabited by the women to whom they used to belong. No matter how old, tight or loose, short or long these gowns may be now, while putting them on the women (re)claim memories of love or affectivity that the mere presence of the gown ritualized at a specific instance of the past.
The bodies of these women wearing bridal gowns parade down the streets and thoroughfares of the city, along an itinerary in which past promises come together to claim future fulfillments. May every dream contained in the symbol of the white gown come true as a banner of peace, love, and solidarity that mirrors and permeates the forevermore.
As it seems, while plucking and dropping to the ground the petals of roses they bring along their way, the women seek to trace back memory and contaminate both the urban space and its inhabitants with feelings of peace and affection. Finally, at the end of the parade, the thorny and bare rose stems are placed in a deep hole that the women dig with their own hands. Then, all distress is buried in a symbolical act combining bravery and resignation.
Thus, the performance-manifesto transcends all artistic borders and achieves a meaning of amorous urgency within a universe of daily violence, which starts from family relationships and contaminates all sorts of situation of city life.
May the women in white conclude their trajectory, influencing other people along their way. May these women ultimately bury all their thorns.
And may their path replace a resigned attitude, an attitude of consolation, while claiming for a status of generous and contagious affectivity. May this path be taken up – and followed.
Katia Canton
Art Critic