Resistencia by María Mascaró

Curator: Catalina Bunge
Artist: María Mascaró
Venue: La Hoguera, Misiones 1590, Ciudad Vieja
Date: 7 to 21 of Septiembre 2024

Resistencia, María Mascaró

Through the disturbing events of our historical and cultural narrative, Mascaró denounces patriarchal logics and their violence against women and feminized bodies. Her early works, Amanat, Mi auto-mi casa, and Mujeres, timidly personify the artist as a crochet turtle shell, a house of cards, or a shirt. Over the years, following significant processes of deconstruction and transformation, where the search for balance and love were fundamental, her body—this time naked—makes its presence felt. Interiomidad is a work that imposes itself on the viewers, confronting them while questioning their own life histories.

In her book Caliban and the Witch, Silvia Federici reflects on how, in feminist theory and the history of women, the body becomes significant both as a site of resistance and a field of exploitation. In the work Yo sí te creo, the artist denounces the vulnerability of children and women in their own homes (a situation that was exacerbated during the pandemic). In a more mature phase of her life, the work Interiomidad depicts the deconstruction of her body as a fertile body, and in Gradiva the fragmentation of that violated childhood, breaking down the vulnerability felt in both cases to project a new image. What began as a timid act of exposure in her works evolved into an act of resistance.

Pain as a stimulus allows her to become aware of the flaws in the system. Our society is permeated by pain resulting from historical violence and oppression rooted in the control, exploitation, and segregation of others. What could be the creative version of pain? Its meaning beyond its explanation? The relationships we establish with pain can vary in form and intensity. They can lead us to states of surrender, victimization, and even suicide. Facing pain is a significant challenge that requires great courage. A traditional biomedical conception of pain separates physical pain from the spirit (soul), forgetting that it also carries those memories and wounds. For Mascaró, deconstructing her body into parts is necessary for her survival.

Her works Jenga diverso and Fragmentaciones show another creative response by the artist to gender violence. Utilizing ingenuity and play, Mascaró resists symbolic violence related to gender, paving the way for a diversity of possibilities. She chooses resilience as a starting point to return to life with a new composition where love embraces and includes all possibilities of being because it accepts everything that has happened and will happen.

A fractal is a geometric element that repeats at different scales. It derives from the Latin fractus, meaning broken or fractured. Fractal geometry, conceptualized by Mandelbrot in 1970, gives meaning to the irregularities in our world. Mascaró's works amplify and expose the repeated wounds across various bodies and centuries of domination. The violences of the patriarchal project are events that continue to multiply to this day as if they were patterns that do not evolve. In Imbricación Infinita, a large-format work, the figure of the wounded and repeated Matryoshka occupies the entire canvas, seeking to exceed its limits and create the illusion of infinitude. Do we have an escape from this pattern? Or is there a greater meaning to such a destiny?

Resistencia allows us to glimpse the thousands of layers that make up the complex fabric of gender violence, as well as the powerful strategies Mascaró employs to resist and survive. Art as a space for reflection and subversion connects us with another possible narrative, personal and empowered.

Catalina Bunge

Actividades de mediación

Conversatorio: sábado 14/09 a las 11hs en La Hoguera, Misiones 1590, Ciudad Vieja
Visita Guiada: martes 10 y martes 17 de septiembre, 16hs, en La Hoguera, Misiones 1590, Ciudad Vieja