There is an invisible link connecting Beth Moysés’ performances. Each new work integrates the design of a subjective map that interlocks women from São Paulo, Sevilla, Salamanca, Murcia, Las Palmas, Montevideo, Cáceres, Madrid, Brasilia and, now, Zaragoza. The women who invariably volunteer to take part in the performance are often victims of domestic violence. They are brought together around a poetics situated on the borderline between aesthetic experience and social mobilization. While proposing the lived experiences, the artist plays a role of mediator between emotional intimacy and social space. The performances, which by and large have been enacted in public venues in neuralgic areas of these cities, double as acts of expiation of the adversities and abuse against women. Furthermore, while one by one all evil things are symbolically buried, destroyed by fire, washed and then strewn on the public space, the ritualistic origin of the artist’s performance is evoked.
The rites that Beth Moysés proposes are solemnly presented. The entrance of all participants in a procession is the moment when she introduces her characters. They are consistently women dressed in white, with a grave countenance marking their faces and an object in their hands. The cortege conveys a memory of communion. However, the steps of this procession are not the same that a bride would tread down the church aisle to the altar. In fact, the alliance established in Moysés’ work is quite another at the end of the way, where participants form a circle, ready to exchange facts and information. The circle favors the flow and the circulation of contents generated during the performance. The routine climaxes with the destruction of objects that, whether they be roses, wool yarns, embroidered gloves, or kitchen sponges, are ex-votos that represent personal stories to be purged.
The performance Diluídas em água [Diluted in water] conceived for enactment in the city of Zaragoza assumes a purifying character. Although forty women take part in it, twenty of them remain hidden in their shelters and hideouts. These women, all of them victims of violence, write down in red ink their thoughts on white clothing that the other twenty women will wear during the public presentation. It is then up to water to reveal the sanguine thoughts shrouded by the white gowns. The act of soaking, washing and wringing the clothes to remove the red lettering from the white cloth represents the association of this performance with the “blood ties” of sacrificial rites.
The performances by Beth Moysés render three irreducible ideas: intervention, expiation, and reconstruction. The water, fire, earth, or other elements used in the process evoke memories and reestablish a sense of integrity. Indeed, this poetics inspires a restorative wellness that can be sensed both in the personal sphere (with the nurturing of affection and self-esteem of the participants) and, mainly, the social sphere. After all, the aesthetic experience of the performance restores to women the expression of their empowerment.
Paula Alzugaray
July 2008