artnexus #100

Beth Moyses (São Paulo, 1960) seeks to bring to the viewer’s attention to the social drama of gender violence. Using a variety of resources, such as photography, drawing, video, and performance actions, she has built a proposal of great subtlety involving elements that allude to the symbolism of the feminine and presenting, from a point of view that is filled with dramatic poeticism, the situation of household violence to which women are so often subjected. The starting point of this construction of a female point of view was Moyses’ reference to candles, roses, and wedding dresses, which insinuated the misleading ideal of romantic love and the artist’s understanding of it as an illusory model that is among the key causes of violence—psychological as well as physical—against women, who are seen as property. In her interventions in many countries, Moyses has enjoyed the collaboration and support of institutions and associations of women who lived through this dramatic experience, and with them, she has been able to transcend the boundaries of the private in order to underscore the social nature of the problem. This element is especially significant in Moyses’ work, as she connects intimately private traumatic situations with the lived experience of thousands of women who have suffered through them. Her ability to connect the private world with the collective character of the problem makes it possible for Moyses to explore the situation, both in her collaborative actions and in her subtle female-centered objects, without depriving her work of an aesthetic refinement that touches us and grants greater visibility to hundreds of anonymous characters. The work on our cover, Untie Times, was a performance presented in the city of Cartagena with the participation of twenty local women who had experienced gender violence. The group walked in time to a drum, their figures fusing into one another thanks to the whiteness of their attire. Little by little, each untied their arms and legs, attempting to push out the pain caused by their mistreatment. The action allows for a dual reading: on the one hand, the women come together and struggle for a common cause; at the same time, they are bound to the suffering caused by the experiences of their shared histories. 
IVONNE PINI