ExhibitionJuly 22, 2022
Polvo de Gallina Negra: The Evil Eye and Other Feminist Recipes
Until November 14, 2022, the exhibition "Polvo de Gallina Negra: Mal de ojo y otras recetas feministas," curated by María Laura Rosa (Argentina) and Julia Antivilo Peña (Chile), and organized by the Centro Nacional de Arte Contemporáneo de Chile, in collaboration with the Cátedra Extraordinaria Rosario Castellanos de Arte y Género from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, will be on view at the Museo Amparo. The exhibition seeks to highlight the importance of this group for the production of Latin American feminist art, almost 40 years after its founding.
The feminist art group Polvo de Gallina Negra (PGN) was created by Maris Bustamante and Mónica Mayer in June 1983 in Mexico City, with the initial participation of artist Herminia Dosal. PGN seeks to deconstruct the traditional images of women, question their role, denounce the violence exercised against them, and criticize the prevailing machismo in Mexico and Latin America. Through experimentation with the languages of the contemporary arts, such as mail art, performance, and intervention in the mass media—television, newspapers and radio, among others.
The exhibition is conceived as a place of permanent interaction with the visitor. It is the first anthological exhibition on the work of Polvo de Gallina Negra and its links with Latin American feminist activism (artivism). It presents key works, documents, posters, letters, photographs, and emblematic works such as "El Tendedero" (1978) and "Madres!" (1987).
The documents presented in the exhibition come from the archives of Mexican and Argentine institutions (Arkheia, from the Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo of the UNAM, the Xavier Clavigero Library of the Universidad Iberoamericana, both in Mexico, and waldengallery in Buenos Aires), as well as from the personal archives of artists Maris Bustamante and Mónica Mayer.
The exhibition is divided into three moments that span five decades of artistic production, both before the group was formed and after its closure, given by the reactivation of works and by highly topical proposals:
-De antes de aquellos polvos (1977-1983): presents selected works from Maris Bustamante's solo career and as part of the collective No-Grupo, and from Mónica Mayer in the period before the conformation of PGN; works that announce their critical stances against patriarchy.
-Polvo de Gallina Negra (1983-1993): Exhibits a documentary, photographic, and video selection that records the actions of the group Polvo de Gallina Negra between 1983 and 1993, with which the artists explored strategies typical of activism, street intervention, and their previous production, based on humor, direct action and deployment in public space. The work "La Fiesta de XV años" reflects on rituals rooted in Mexican and Latin American culture.
-Pospolvo. Reactivations (1993- 2020): It gives an account of how each member's personal and collective careers have continued. It is relevant the fact that the theme of maternity, central in the works of Polvo de Gallina Negra, has continued in collective works such as "Maternidades secuestradas" (Mexico, 2012), which arises through the Taller de Arte y Activismo Feminista (TAAF) or "Maternidades en Tensión" (Buenos Aires, 2019).
The feminist art group Polvo de Gallina Negra (PGN) was created by Maris Bustamante and Mónica Mayer in June 1983 in Mexico City, with the initial participation of artist Herminia Dosal. PGN seeks to deconstruct the traditional images of women, question their role, denounce the violence exercised against them, and criticize the prevailing machismo in Mexico and Latin America. Through experimentation with the languages of the contemporary arts, such as mail art, performance, and intervention in the mass media—television, newspapers and radio, among others.
The exhibition is conceived as a place of permanent interaction with the visitor. It is the first anthological exhibition on the work of Polvo de Gallina Negra and its links with Latin American feminist activism (artivism). It presents key works, documents, posters, letters, photographs, and emblematic works such as "El Tendedero" (1978) and "Madres!" (1987).
The documents presented in the exhibition come from the archives of Mexican and Argentine institutions (Arkheia, from the Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo of the UNAM, the Xavier Clavigero Library of the Universidad Iberoamericana, both in Mexico, and waldengallery in Buenos Aires), as well as from the personal archives of artists Maris Bustamante and Mónica Mayer.
The exhibition is divided into three moments that span five decades of artistic production, both before the group was formed and after its closure, given by the reactivation of works and by highly topical proposals:
-De antes de aquellos polvos (1977-1983): presents selected works from Maris Bustamante's solo career and as part of the collective No-Grupo, and from Mónica Mayer in the period before the conformation of PGN; works that announce their critical stances against patriarchy.
-Polvo de Gallina Negra (1983-1993): Exhibits a documentary, photographic, and video selection that records the actions of the group Polvo de Gallina Negra between 1983 and 1993, with which the artists explored strategies typical of activism, street intervention, and their previous production, based on humor, direct action and deployment in public space. The work "La Fiesta de XV años" reflects on rituals rooted in Mexican and Latin American culture.
-Pospolvo. Reactivations (1993- 2020): It gives an account of how each member's personal and collective careers have continued. It is relevant the fact that the theme of maternity, central in the works of Polvo de Gallina Negra, has continued in collective works such as "Maternidades secuestradas" (Mexico, 2012), which arises through the Taller de Arte y Activismo Feminista (TAAF) or "Maternidades en Tensión" (Buenos Aires, 2019).
Gallery
