Through the wandering of the protagonists in her performances, with torn down clothing and hollowed symbols, Beth Moysés is gradually building, from the stridently charged palette of her paintings and the ironic gaze housed in her tridimensional works, the corpus of a very particular political oeuvre in Brazil. Despite being recognized and present in major collections in Spain, and a guest artist showing at various exhibitions and biennials on several continents – thus helping to compose powerful female landscapes for diversity, from the pale faces of Irish and Spanish women to dark-skinned women from Panama and Brazil, for example –, this São Paulo native seems to find little echo in her home territory. [This neglect] is understandable for a country that has coined a term as contradictory as “cordial racism”. “Brazil is refractory to discussion of differences in the field of art: women, men, blacks, Indians, whites, Japanese, Jews, Muslims, homosexuals, internal colonialism, cultural plurality, class structure. Rejecting them out of hand is seen as cool. In this respect, the Brazilian art system is not ‘politically incorrect’, but anti-democratic,”1 notes Paulo Herkenhoff in relation to the Manobras Radicais group exhibition in 2006, which he curated as one of his rare incursions into this discussion of gender in the visual arts in this country.
Moysés’ approach shuttles between almost baroque excess – the soundtrack on many of her videos; the use of strident colors, especially red, on different supports; the reiterated use of symbols from an over sweetened pacification between male and female, such as the bridal dress, in many languages – and a quieter development in the un-noisy and ordered wandering of the somewhat phantasmatic participants in her performances; dissolved, incomplete and permeable formalization of elements of these actions, such as writing pieces that fade away after washing, or the clothing of the women in Diluídas em Água [Diluted in water], for example. In this last work, presented in Mi Pueblito, Panama, in 2013, one of the most interesting versions in her oeuvre is featured with the performance centered around a public fountain, originally intended to adorn a folklore location for tourists in this Central American country.
Between dissonance and whispering, the specific situation of women victims of violence on the national level is still a disturbing phenomenon. Protective legislation has been introduced, such as the Maria da Penha Law (2006) and there are institutions advocating women’s rights, shelter-homes, houses for women and places with similar functions, but victims fail to report many cases. “What is worse than suffering in silence, is going to a police station and hearing the chief officer say: ‘I’ll apply for a protective order. You can go home now.’ She goes home and the order is never issued,” 2 says Eleonora Menicucci, head of a federal agency for Women’s Policies.
Beth Moysés recorded this agonizing wait in a series of drawings titled Mulheres Divididas [Women divided] (2004), in which slippers and flat-heels overlap in lines and volumes as if to bring out the zone of discomfort depicted. She returns to this technique in a series for the Hilo Conductor (2013) exhibition in Seville, Spain. In this latest set, the artist is a priori more placid in her use of graphite with seams , stitches, darns, tears, holes, thimbles, needles and similar images dominating the surface. However, it is a deceptive calm. Soon it seems that something is going to be hurt and this apparently stable structure will collapse.
The video and photographs comprising Coral Celestial (2013) also feature this tense stillness. By collecting statements from priests who often hear confidential reports from women suffering domestic violence every day, Moysés combines views of the lips of victims, the wooden screen separating priest from person at the confessional, and the priest’s voice-off constantly encouraging them to seek official assistance to put an end to their grievous situation. Even if members of the Catholic Church are more advanced – one is reminded of the Inquisition’s vigorous activity against women in Iberian countries – there is no ending the continual state of discomfort as we end our view of her works.
“One must take into account that issues related to the body and female sexuality are still very sensitive subjects in the politics of international relations. Why? Because gender inequality persists. The body and female sexuality are constantly polemicized as the main battlefields for conservatives and progressives worldwide,”3 Canadian-born Françoise Girard, president of the International Women’s Health Coalition, argued.
If the facts corroborate the disquiet felt by the most attentive observers – like the uninterrupted sound of hospital equipment in the performance Huecos del Alma (2008), perhaps one of her most successful incursions into this language – it is a joy to see a series of new artists with very different investigations in dialogue with the production of Beth Moysés. The battlefield is still open to sensitivity, even if there is still a long way to go to reach the final outcome, hopefully a positive one for women.
Mario Gioia, May 2013
Mario Gioia holds a bachelor’s degree from the Universidade de São Paulo’s School of Communications and Arts – ECA-USP. In 2013 coordinated for the third time the event Zip’Up, organized at Zipper Galeria to show works by new artists and new curatorial projects. He curated Ela Caminha em Direção à Fronteira [She walked toward the border] with works by Ana Mazzei, the first solo show to integrate the exhibition series Zip’Up, in 2012. Other shows held in this same year included Lugar do Outro, [The Other’s place], by Julia Kater; Transmission, by Geraldo Marcolini; Íntima Ação [Intimate action], by Carolina Paz; Planisfério [Planisphere], by Marina Camargo; Requadros, [Re-frames], by Mariana Tassinari, and the group exhibition Imagem Mi(g)rante) [Migrating image]. In 2012, he also curated Incerto Limite [Indistinct limit], by Shirley Paes Leme (Bolsa de Arte, Porto Alegre); Miragem [Mirage], by Romy Pocztaruk, and Distante Presente [Distant present], by Gordana Manic (both at Galeria Ímpar). In 2011, he launched Zip’Up with the group exhibition Presenças [Presences] followed by Já Vou [I’m coming], by Alessandra Duarte; Aéreos [Lofty], by Fabio Flaks; Perto Longe [Close far], by Aline van Langendonck; Paragem [Stopover], by Laura Gorski; Hotel Tropical, by João Castilho, and the group show Território de Caça [Hunting territory], all of them with his curatorial design. In 2010, he curated Incompletudes [Incompleness], at galeria Virgilio; Mediações [Mediations], at Galeria Motor and Espacialidades [Spatialities], at galeria Central, in addition to having reviewed the works produced at Ateliê Fidalga, held at Paço das Artes. In 2009, Gioia curated Obra Menor [Minor opus] at Ateliê 397, and Lugar Sim e Não [Yes and No place] at Galeria Eduardo Fernandes. He was news reporter and writer of arts and architecture articles for the section Ilustrada of Folha de S.Paulo daily from 2005 to 2009. Currently he collaborates articles for different media such as the magazines Bravo and Bamboo, UOL Internet portal, and magazines Dardo, of Spain, and Interni, of Italy. He has co-authored the book Roberto Mícoli (Bei Editora) and integrates the critics group at Paço das Artes, an institution at which he provided critical accompaniment to Black Market (2012), by Paulo Almeida, and A Riscar (2011), by Daniela Seixas. Mario Gioia has been the guest critic of the 2012-2013 Photography Program at Centro Cultural São Paulo – CCSP.
1. BUARQUE DE HOLLANDA, Heloisa and HERKENHOFF, Paulo (org.). Manobras Radicais. São Paulo: Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, 2006, p. 17
2. ARBEX, Thais. O crime contra a mulher está mais cruel. O Estado de S.Paulo, Caderno 2, 25 March 2013, p. D2
3. SAYURI, Juliana. Não ande sozinha? O Estado de S.Paulo, Aliás, 10 March 2013, p. J5