Sobre una mujer / About a Woman
Curated by Elda Harrington and Silvia Mangialardi
July 27-October 8, 2023

OPENING RECEPTION
Thursday, July 27 4-6pm
Click to RSVP

HOURS
Tuesday-Sunday 10AM-5PM

LOCATION
OAS AMA | Art Museum of the Americas
201 18th Street NW
Washington, DC 20006

ADMISSION
Free

The OAS AMA | Art Museum of the Americas and the FLA-Fundacion Luz Austral, with the support of the Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM) Sobre una mujer (About a Woman), an exhibition of contemporary photography of the Americas. This exhibition coincides with the 95th anniversary of the CIM. Curated by Elda Harrington and Sylvia Mangialardi, this exhibition was presented online through the museum's social media platforms in March of 2023, and will now come to life along the museum's physical walls.

Artists:
Patricia Ackerman (Argentina)
Maia Alcire (Argentina)
Cecilia Anton (Argentina)
Marina Carniglia (Argentina)
Silvina Caserta (Argentina)
Veronica Cozzi (Argentina)
Diane Fenster (United States)
Ana Carolina Fernandes (Brazil)
Alicia D'Amico (Argentina)
Franco Fafasuli (Argentina)
Claudia Gaudelli (Argentina)
Paula Gomez Viale (Chile)
Adriana Groisman (Argentina-United States)
Annemarie Heinrich (Argentina)
Maria Alejandra Huerta Leighton (Chile)
Julia Lafee (Chile)
Adriana Lestido (Argentina)
Candelaria Magliano (Argentina)
Gaby Messina (Argentina)
Haley Morris Cafiero (United States)
Cirenaica Moreira (Cuba)
Cristian Nicollier (Argentina)
Pablo Ortiz Monasterio (Mexico)
Lydia Panas (United States)
Cande Rivera (Nicaragua)
Ana Robles (Argentina)
Cesar Gustavo Ruiz (Argentina)
Karen Schwend (Chile)
Ana Maria Saenz (Chile)
Annita Pouchard Serra (Argentina)
Viktoria Sorochinski (Canada-Ukraine)
Sara Wayra Aliaga (Bolivia)

Sobre una mujer, en la mirada de artistas de las Américas

Sobre las mujeres no es posible generalizar o extrapolar. Cada individualidad hace que al hablar de este colectivo, nos refiramos a las historias de un conjunto de ellas, una por una.  

Las mujeres no somos un bloque identitario compacto y homogéneo.

Existen distintas edades, diferentes territorios, diversas realidades económicas. Elegimos, las que tenemos el privilegio de poder hacerlo, distintas formas de vida. Cada experiencia es singular, y nos provoca sentimientos, creencias, valores e ideas, que a veces compartimos y muchas otras no.

Esta muestra no pretende ser una descripción del género femenino, sino apenas recorrer algunas de sus aristas, subrayadas en profundidad por los autores. 

Uno de los temas recurrentes es la violencia explícita o implícita, social o familiar, transitada en el acoso físico o moral, en el hartazgo ante la injusticia cotidiana, y en sus luchas y conquistas.

Las imágenes permiten reflexionar sobre la dicotomía entre la ferocidad y la vulnerabilidad, la maternidad, la aparición de lo maquinal ante lo simultáneo y vertiginoso de las tareas, los vínculos con los objetos del espacio doméstico, los cambios del cuerpo, el aborto. 

El recorrido nos interpela sobre la penetración  social de los mandatos heredados. Estos generan sumisión y su contracara, la rebeldía, trayendo la posibilidad de la reconstrucción de un lenguaje propio como salida.

Sin embargo, hay una, y sólo una, generalización que es posible y constatable.  

Las mujeres somos la única mayoría que aún hoy, en pleno siglo XXI, sigue siendo discriminada.

*****

Sobre una mujer (About a Woman), through the eyes of artists of the Americas

On women, it is not possible to generalize or extrapolate. Each individuality means that when talking about this group, we refer to a set of stories, one by one.

Women are not a compact and homogeneous identity block. There are different ages, different territories, various economic realities. We choose, those that we have the privilege of being able to, different ways of life. Each experience is unique, and stirs feelings, beliefs, values and ideas within us, which we sometimes share, and oftentimes do not.

This sample does not seek to be a representation of women as a gender, but to barely scratch the surface of its edges, underlined in depth by these artists. Among the recurring themes, explicit or implicit, are social or family violence, physical or moral harassment, exhaustion in the face of everyday injustice, and personal struggles and conquests.  

The images allow reflection on the dichotomy between ferocity and vulnerability, motherhood, the appearance of machinery before simultaneous vertiginous tasks, links with the objects of domestic spaces, bodily changes, and abortion.

The route challenges us about the social penetration of inherited mandates. These generate submission and, in contrast, rebellion, bringing the possibility of reconstruction of their own language as an exit route.

However, there is one, and only one, generalization that is possible and verifiable. Women are the only majority that even today, in the 21st century, still face great discrimination.