November 20, 2009, Imagina, the gentle power of art, By Suzanne Ludekens, Imagina 2009 Art Opening, Breaking the Glass Ceiling—Rompiendo el Cristal, By Margaret Failoni

Desgarramiento, fotografía 35 mm. impresa digital, 60 x 57cm.

Lena Bartula, painter, multi media artist and activist, is still in awe of the widespread response to the first imagina 2009 exhibit. Over a period of months since she first spoke of her dream to “join artists together for another act of social consciousness to imagine a world without gender violence” the art community in San Miguel has rallied to support and participate in the concept.

It is not, however, an exhibit of current works by local artists, each and every exhibit sheds light on a different interpretation of gender violence. Who better than our arts community to make us question our own relationship to violence and how society foments, fosters and institutionalizes it.

Lena’s initial idea of screening a few films on gender violence and a few art exhibits has grown exponentially to what looks like a new festival for the San Miguel annual calendar. And a festival that rings true with the values of this community—artistic expression, defense of human rights and a vision of an improved world.

Now, just a week away for the inauguration, the number of participants and events are quite staggering: 16 days of events with 13 film screenings, 17 art exhibits with more than 50 participating artists, a gala dinner, panel discussion, candlelight vigil, concert, fair trade crafts fair, a poetry reading and a closing party. Of course there will probably be last minute additions as more people seek to support imagina. The main beneficiary of the events is CASA, San Miguel’s Midwifery school, though a percentage of art sales will be shared among Mujeres en Cambio scholarships and Santa Julia orphanage and film entrance fees will be shared between CASA programs and the Biblioteca Pública—all in the name of awareness of gender violence.

Imagina is a significant and unprecedented event in San Miguel and I encourage each and every sanmiguelense to take their children, friends, family and employees to these exhibits, screenings and events. Juntos we can imagine a world without gender violence.

Gender Violence in Mexico

Violence against women is rampant across Mexico. It is most starkly apparent in the northern cities of Juarez and Chihuahua, where, according to Amnesty International, over 400 women have been disappeared or murdered since 1993. Women’s organizations in Juarez claim deaths are much, much higher. At least 46.6 percent of Mexican women have experienced violence, according to a 2003 study conducted by the National Women's Institute, InMujeres, and the United Nations Women's Development Fund. In 2004 alone, 1205 Mexican women and girls were killed, according to the National Institute of Statistics, Geography, and Information, INEGI.

March 2007General Law on Women's Access to a Life Free of Violence, seeks to end violence against women, while addressing what advocates consider its root cause: gender-inequity. The new law, signed by the Calderón government on February 1st, is the first in Mexico to specifically address violence against women. While laws against family violence do exist in Mexico, they do not treat violence against women as an effect of the inequalities between men and women, said Marcela Lagarde, former senator and feminist anthropologist, one of the law's main proponents. "The majority of cases reported, though they are labeled family violence, are, in fact, instances of violence against women in more that 80 percent of cases," she said.

The new law identifies five kinds of violence: psychological, physical, economic, sexual, and patrimonial violence, or the denial of property or inheritance. It also names the environments in which these forms of violence occur: the family, the community, at work, in educational settings, and public institutions. Defining and recognizing the violence that women suffer is the first step in finding effective ways to eradicate it, said feminist lawyer Martha Figueroa.

http://www.awid.org/eng/Issues-and-Analysis
/Library/Ending-Gender-Violence-in-Mexico/(language)/eng-GB

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Imagina 2009 Art Opening
Rompiendo El Cristal
7pm-9pm, Wed, Nov 25
Gallery James Pinto Contemporaneo
Cocktail opening
Instituto Allende
Ancha de San Antonio 20

Breaking the Glass Ceiling—Rompiendo el Cristal
By Margaret Failoni

Violent, w.(l.violence) (entis). Acting with or characterized by great physical force, so as to injure or damage, rough, showing or resulting from strong feeling or emotion; passionate, immoderate, ferocious; forced, not voluntary.

Imagina 2009 asks us to imagine a world without violence and is a multi-disciplinary art and activism project that begins November 25—the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Women activists have marked November 25 as a day against violence since 1981. This date came from the brutal assassination in 1960, of the three Mirabel sisters, political activists in the Dominican Republic, on orders of the dictator Rafael Trujillo. Their unswerving dedication to justice and equality has continued to empower and inspire women around the world.

Violence against women in the 21st century is not only perceived as the age old physical violence, such as genital mutilation so prevalent in parts of Asia and Africa, rape and beatings, but as and perhaps more insidious, is the psychological abuse, such as harassment in the work place, unequal pay, marital domination, barred opportunities on the labor and political stage. “Breaking the Glass Ceiling” unites seven artists creating works in several mediums, all united in a critical vision of women’s status in today’s world.

Beverley Ashe is a painter with a vision often creating works from nature while at the same time exploiting themes so relevant to her gender. One particular work shows us a screaming woman’s face floating within a cloudy ether-like mist, as if a silent scream struggles to be heard.

Lena Bartula presents us with a series of very symbolic wall hangings in mixed media, some with secret messages hidden within the flowing folds, other are Huicholes, a type of blouse warn by Indigenous women in southern Mexico and Guatemala, each with a special message, plus a stunning labyrinth installed in the gallery-patio, meant to be a metaphor, in which, once entering, the viewer is lost, groping for a way out.

Laura Begonia is a diminutive woman whose larger than life iron sculptures are both graceful, yet strong, many with soft, feminine curves within an abstract oeuvre: the iron fist in a velvet glove.

One of Marisa Boullosa’s works deals with certain frustrations within a marriage symbolized by very strong photo material depicting a large knife lacerating a wedding gown.

Ana Quiroz creates works from shattered glass, small glass chards in the form of a bright, flesh colored, sliced open papaya or fruta bomba as it is also called in the Caribbean, and which in some countries is a double entendre for the female genitals. Another not so veiled work is a beautifully executed engagement ring with a scull in place of the diamond.

Norma Suarez chooses to cull excerpts from the Bible in which many misogynous texts have unwittingly formed the male psyche prevarication over women.

Ana Thiel chooses a more pacifist approach to the subject on hand with a collage work interpreting fashion dictates in which women are psychologically programmed. Another work challenges the viewer to see his or her reflection in a mirror, as the victim or the activist; you decide.

All in all, we are treated to wonderful art by seven intelligent and sensitive artists with different approaches through their art, to the question of violence against women.