Carmenta by Deborah Elenter

Curator: Catalina Bunge
Artist: Deborah Elenter
Venue: Centro Cultural Kavlin, Maldonado, Uruguay
Date: 1st march until 15th of april 2024

Carmenta, Deborah Elenter

With the rise of capitalism, the body came to be seen as a labor force, a means of production, and a repository of both violence and interest. In response to this new conquest of women's bodies and their most intimate aspects, regulation and control over their behavior and representation emerged. We began to feel shame about our naked bodies, about laughing, walking, behaving at the table, speaking, and so on. How we were seen shaped how we were constructed. Centuries and generations have weighed upon us, bending us to the will of a patriarchal, heteronormative, hegemonic, classist, and racist system. Women had to deconstruct themselves to find themselves again, and in that process, an immense spectrum of possibilities, genders, and ways of living emerged. Philosopher Judith Butler proposed that gender is a performance, opening up the possibility of rethinking it beyond the hegemonic, mandatory, and even “natural” norms.

In addition, the new era of information and technology has permeated our lives and bodies. Practices that are common in many societies—and have become normalized as part of our contemporary life—include aesthetic surgeries, prosthetics, and interventions that alter our physical composition and its natural course. Our relationships, and the bodily presence as a vehicle for these, have also been affected. The digitalization of life and the accompanying technological revolution suggest reduction as a trend and ideal value to achieve (more capacity in a smaller size).

As French philosopher Erci Sadin articulates, our environment has transformed into a new artificial medium far from the "natural" one (constituted by nature), resulting in a "technologization of our existence." With the advent of the smartphone as a mobile and multifunctional device, our facial gestures are read and reduced to generic responses that deny our individuality.

Feminism and ecofeminism have gained significant relevance as critical approaches to modernity, capitalism, patriarchy, and technology. Both nature and women have been subordinated to the oppression and dominance of the masculine and capital. Under this heteropatriarchal order, women, along with other gender identities, have been excluded from the public sphere, confined to the domestic (in the case of women), and deprived of their own authority. A direct and close relationship was established between women and the earth as fertile bodies, repositories of oppression, dominance, and exploitation. The empowerment of women within feminist and ecofeminist struggles, alongside criticism of the Anthropocene and technological acceleration, has allowed for the redefinition of a new role and protagonism for women in their lives.

The story told by Elenter has many layers, addressing various issues from our history and contemporary times. Her photographic work contrasts with the invisibility of women and their subordination in the past, in the healthcare system, and in their historical role as bearers and contributors to human evolution. This role has been reduced to its biological productivity, excluding the identity and lived experiences of each woman. The artist creates a new narrative, realistic and documentary, of women giving birth—as a political act—and redefines the facial gesture in an increasingly dehumanized context and future.

Throughout time, the established medical system has directed the way women give birth and welcome their children. The irate, free, and spontaneous behavior of a woman giving birth does not fit within the oppressive gaze of patriarchy. This untamed quality of her body has been contained and kept censored from the world’s view, confined to a hospital room or surgical setting. Giving birth is both an individual and collective act; it is an experience that transcends us as unique individuals and connects us intensely with every woman who has given birth throughout history and across the globe. It is an expansive, exorbitant process that has nothing to do with the reductionist character of the technological and digital age. It is a practice that connects us to the mystery of the universe's creation, the Big Bang, and aligns us with all the creatures of the planet.

Elenter recognizes the innate and subversive power of women giving birth and makes us accomplices in her narrative. She invites us to reconstruct our perspective and revisit it free from the influence of others as a dominant and influential actor. The woman and her productive role as a bearer are deconstructed and redefined in a realistic and intimate gaze. The delivery room becomes a political space, as does the body, and becomes part of the collective struggle of feminism.

Four thematic axes organize the exhibition, serving as epicenters of the narrative presented by the artist: the liberated gesture and voice, censorship of the female body (its nudity, presence, performativity, and placenta), childbirth as a sexual process, and the delivery room as a political space. Photographic works, audiovisual pieces, and installations are part of the extensive repertoire used to speak about the silenced, to make explicit the censored, and to reflect on the various mechanisms present at the moment of giving birth.

Catalina Bunge