First published in November, 1st, 2009, for the show presented at the Fundacio Miro and exhibited during two months at the Centro de Cultura Contemporanea de Barcelona (CCCB).
I N D O M I T A B L E W O M E N _ M U J E R E S I N D O M A B L E S _ U N B E U G S A M E N F R A U E N _ F E M M E S I N D O M P T A B L E S _ D O N N E I N D O M A B I L I _ D O N E S I N D O M A B L E S _ D I R E N E N K A D I N L A R _ O N T E M B A R E V R O W E N _ N I E Z L O M N E J K O B I E T Y _ O K U V L I G A K V I N N O R _ I N V I C T U M M U L I E R E S
“Passion does not soften the light of intelligence, but rather overexcites it, providing it with a particular precognition, and extraordinary subtleness and ingeniousness.”
Charles Malapert (1581-1630)
”Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion. Its power is manifested either by the intensity of its effects or by the stability and continuance of its action.”
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831)
The Indomitable Women selection certainly bespeaks of a passionate process, throughout proposals and reflections developed with the necessary wisdom to allow total freedom of creation under diverse circumstances. Artists with a passion to leave their particular imprints, fearlessly redefining contemporary aesthetics and thought.
They are indomitable because both endogenous and exogenous domination mechanisms have not worked on them. They are indomitable because no one has been able to cast them into a mold designed through a long history developed for and by men; immune to the standard guidelines, the product of mental paradigms that come from unconscious beliefs and implicit cultural values that restrain creativity and repress ideas, towards the obedient acquiescence to the predominant masculine role, established in most societies since the origins of humankind.
Indomitable, once again, because of embracing the audiovisual medium, embodying the temporal dimension as an active player in the universe of perceptions and multiplying the experience with countless visual impacts, which choreograph on the retina an everlasting sensation. Passionate women who know how to give time to time in the artistic practice, who have not been stopped by the recalcitrant resistance of conservative reactionaries afraid of change and specific to each generation. Women with their own voice and criteria, who, by vocation, have let their imagination fly and take us all towards new futures, conceived for an advanced, dynamic and multi-faceted society.
This show is an effort to discover the characteristics of the point of view of women behind the camera as a pertinent discursive thread that has not been sufficiently analyzed, exhibited or recognized. It invites to reflect upon the perception and vital behavior that designates the various approaches of the female creative nature and, on a deeper level, concerns anchored in the psyche over time, perceptible thanks to the cross-historic cut.
Gathering works developed within the past seven decades, the selection attempts to glimpse that ethereal something that is a backdrop to women’s artistic praxis, always loyal to the duty of evolution inherent in art, and acquiescent with its revolutionary power. Art is here distinguished as a flux of currents of thought that promotes the creation of innovative notions, which subtly filter through society. Meanings and signifiers that have created and continue to create their imprints in contemporary art history, confronting times past and generating new ideas and original perspectives.
The flux of conscience that emanates from these works are intimate monologues of oscillating thought, images, wishes, emotions, curiosities and reflections, containing surprising conceptual, aesthetic and, of course, technical and technological connections. Works elaborated with the virtuosity that only passion can conceive, and that in the de-codification state offers an open reading to the viewers, allowing them to have an intimate relationship to the codes and sub-codes proposed in each work by this splendid group of artists and indomitable women.
What it is, will no longer be; what it was, is not any longer. Intrinsically bound to change, time does not stop; neither does it repeat itself. Wise are those creators who have an inspiring muse and travel companion in this callida iunctura.
Special thanks to the pioneer artists whose support has made Indomitable Women possible:
Maya Deren / Dara Birnbaum / Carolee Schneemann / Yoko Ono / Orlan / Judy Chicago / VALIE EXPORT / Joan Jonas / Martha Rosler / Beryl Korot / Guerrilla Girls / Joan Logue / Marisa González / Colette / Ximena Cuevas / Suzanne Lacy / Lynn Hershman / Paloma Navares / Dora García / Ana de Alvear / Beth Moyses / Sigalit Landau / Ana Bella Geiger / Mariko Mori / Tracey Moffat / Coco Fusco / Terry Berkowitz / Amy Greenfield / Jenny Marketou / Angie Bonino / Maria Fernanda Cardoso / Grimanesa Amoros / Regina Jose Galindo / Francesca Llopis / Mariana Vassileva / Jenny Marketou
