Art and Violence: 10 artists against violence on women

Art and Violence: 10 Artists who are against violence on women and that through their works tell their path, experiences and motivations that pushed them to make these choices.

A few days after International Day Against Violence on Women I want to go back to talk about this topic, a little bit because I am a woman and I feel involved and because, I am sensitive to the individual initiatives that undertake to raise awareness of a complex issue.

We have already seen such as advertising can get to the heart and stomach of the people, but How does the art? In today's post I found a lot of inspiration, many ideas and many interesting point of views and I want to share with you works and actions that some international artists have undertaken to represent the phenomenon of violence against women.

Art and Violence: 10 artists against violence on women

Regina José Galindo

Beginning with this artist and take the violence a bit away. In fact, to say that this artist is only occupied on the topic of women is a bit too simplistic.

Regina José Galindo is a performer artist from Guatemala who uses her body as a medium of expression and vehicle for thoughts about the crimes committed in her land of origin. In 2014 PAC (Pavilion of Contemporary Art in Milan) It hosted her performance entitled “Estoy Viva“ (I'm alive) shows a container divided into five thematic sections, among other, she tells women and violence.

Performance “Perra” (female dog or whore in Spanish) from 2005 it's particularly intense and shocking, with a knife she engrave on her leg the word “bitch” to protest and show the violence and murders perpetrated against women in Guatemala.

I realize that words can be inadequate but I'll let the words of the artist taken from the interview that underneath:

“…We have to understand that absolutely everything in the world is chained and human error was to feel different from each other, we are all the same. What happens to a woman in Germany happens to me. We are a single individual, one body.”

Wall of Dolls

In 2014 in Milan, in via De Amicis, a wall, such as one sees so many in Milan, it has become important witness to the activity that each individual can take to combat violence against women.

The dolls, the game more loved in the childhood of the whole female universe,, hanging on the wall become an expression of solidarity among women. This performance organized by Jo Squillo and WeWorld Intervita collects evidence important also from the world of fashion.

The first to join the initiative were 50 brand of international representatives of Made in Italy with 20 artists and various non-profit organization hanging dolls, then came the people of Milan who chose to contribute by bringing their dolls.

Here are some shocking given by WeWorld Intervita:

“IN THE WORLD 130 million women have undergone genital mutilation. 1 woman on 5 was a victim of physical or sexual violence.
IN SOME COUNTRIES rape by husband it is still legal and brutality against women is a normal cultural component.
IN AMERICA 1 woman every 15 seconds is attacked, often by spouse.
IN EUROPA 62 millions of women - 1 on 3 - are victims of ill-treatment.
IN ITALY 1 million women have been abused and many are gone.“

Photo via.

Elina Chauvet

One morning in November 2012 the people from Milan who were going to work in city center, passing from the columns of San Lorenzo, found something unusual: red shoes.

The creator of this initiative is the Mexican artist Elina Chauvet thanks to a network of associations from around the world led her “Zapatos Rojos” on tour telling the story of violence and blood of the Mexican women's Ciudad Juárez (city ​​on the northern border between Mexico and Texas).

The first time the red shoes make their debut in 2009 just in Ciudad Juárez with 33 pairs of shoes, to date, they have come a long way from Mexico to Italy always adding (unfortunately) some new testimony of suffering and death: each pair of shoes is donated to the the performance represents a woman who died or disappeared and bears witness to the violence perpetrated against women.

Photo Via.

Panmela Castro

Panmela Castro is a feminist activist who tells the suffering of women with street art. The Brazilian artist who grew up in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro and immersed in a way of street art, but also of the violence, took her first steps, closer to the world of art with the graffiti and their possibility to reach a broader audience, which is closer to the message without prejudice. Her battle name is Anarkia.

The message is not only expressed on the city walls but also takes place with the constant awareness about the problem of violence against women through association with other street artists to raise awareness about the rights of women in the favelas of Rio, where the information often does not reach the direct affected. Through her art spreads ideas and teach women their rights by contributing to the formation of a strong social conscience.

Her art that recalls the social conscience is recognized worldwide, not only for messages that communicates to us but also for the accuracy and the ability. I suggest you watch this video to find out how works a great street artist.

Elvan Özkavruk Adanır and Jovita Sakalauskaite Kurnaz

These two Turkish academics and artists have recovered the ancient tradition of “talismanic shirts” in use in the Ottoman culture: the ancients used these shirts embroidered with a few verses of the Koran to make warriors invincible in battle, protect from the evil and bring luck to the wearer.
The project is called “Denial of Fear and Despair: Talismanic Shirts” and textile works have been created to protect the woman symbolically, but also to draw attention to the cases of violence of which they continue to be victims.

Photo Via.

Erik Ravelo

Cuban artist Ravelo some time ago rose to the honours of the news for a reason a little bit strange. We had already discovered this artist in 2011 why was the creator of the controversial advertising campaign of Benetton Group “Unhate” which he depicted different characters of international politics in the act of kissing on the mouth. Remember?

The reason for the scandal concerns precisely this social campaign “End violence against women“ against rape that has developed in collaboration with the Chinese photographer Shek Po Kwan that was very disagreeable to Facebook. So unwelcome that censored preventing the artist to buy an advertising campaign to spread this message. Of course, the reaction of the artist did not have to wait:

“On Facebook you can find anything I have seen promoted post of company weapons, Alcohol, lingerie for women shown as two buttocks and point. There are people having sex, shooter animals, not to mention the pages racist or worse Nazi.

It's’ a shame that initiatives like this, designed to carry a strong message about the defence of women's rights, be blocked and damaged. At the end, I have not been able to do the campaign, it came only to my friends and a few followers”

However, controversy aside fully justified, my advice is to go and see the numerous campaigns by Erik Ravelo and Fabrica in defense of the rights of women and female genital mutilation.

Photo Via.

Alberto Penagos

The Mexican artist Alberto Penagos choose painting as the medium of expression, and paints the violence on the women in this series of works entitled “Violence Against Women“. The hyper-realist works are literally and figuratively, show the pain and the feelings of violence, discomfort and tightness test that the viewer is tangible.

Lise Bjørne Linnert

The Norwegian artist Lise Bjørne Linnert works with different media and in this case we engaged in a collective art project by name “Desconocida / Unknown / Ukjent“.

In this project against violence on women, all the people that wish to participate commit to embroider two labels of cloth, one with the name of one of the murder victims of Ciudad Juarez (this Mexican city back often in the collective memory of the artists), the other with the word “unknown” written in the language and the alphabet of the project participant.

The goal is to remember with a “common thread” victims of violent crimes are the same all over the world, there is not a difference of religion, culture or country of origin.

Until November 2015 it is almost 7.000 tags embroidering handmade by participants from 450 workshops dedicated to the project.

Patricia Evans

The work of the American photographer Patricia Evans was particularly upset.

It's called “Hidden in the radiant green, a man waits. In hate-blinded hands, darkness waits” and is a collection of 25 photographs of the American artist after the sexual assault suffered in the early afternoon in Chicago near Lake.

So the title is taken from the last sentence of the book “Working with avaiable lights” written by the husband of the artist on the subject of rape and its implications in the family.

The photographs are on display in a cold, impersonal and almost seem photographs of police reports, both the exposure and the rawness is linear for the search of possible particular useful for the capture of the assailant.

Currently Patricia Evans is active in combating violence and collects the faces and the testimonies of victims of sexual assaults in the collection “The Voices and Faces Project“. Photo Via.

Flavia Carvalho

It's called “A Pele da Flor” (The skin of a flower) and the project is very popular on the web these days Flavia Carvalho a Brazilian tattoo artist, like street artist compatriot , has taken to heart the issue of violence against women. Her action is very simple and direct: create free tattoos for victims of domestic violence to cover scars and physical signs of abuse.

The service she offers is completely free and does not cost anything to the victims. Carvalho certainly does not intend to make sure that the problem is hidden, well aware that the real psychological scars are hard to digest. Here's what she says about her work:

“It all started about two years ago, when I worked with a client who wanted to cover a large scar on the abdomen. She told me that she was in a nightclub, and when turned around a man who was stabbed near the belly with a knife. When she saw the tattoo finished, was extremely moved, and this touched me deeply.”

Photo Via.