women.graphics.politics

project and text by Yili Rojas

In this exhibition, I present positions and initiatives of which I am a part as an initiator, coordinator, participant or collaborator - in addition to including my own individual artistic work. I see myself as a builder of transnational bridges whose bases are engraving, feminisms and politics - understood as action in the face of relevant themes of everyday life, in this specific case inquiring among those who have been socialized or are read as women.

We learn to be women within social, historical, economic and cultural parameters that continually shape us. Most of us grew up in misogynistic contexts, where gender teachings given through religion, media, school and family contributed to a subordinate view of what is conventionally called feminine. Even when we think we have overcome this view, we are surprised by attitudes that reflect what has been passed down to us from generation to generation and that we have thus internalized. Unlearning the misogyny that we carry is a necessary step, among many others that we have to take.

We use printmaking circles as spaces for this unlearning, strengthening transnational feminist practices, connecting us emotionally and politically with other women. Workshops such as Frauen machen Druck (Women who print and/or who exert political pressure) in Berlin, Matriz in Cariri, Ceará, and La Linofficine in Marseille are examples where feminisms are expressed through images, collaborations, and graphic actions.

Projects such as those of Frauen machen Druck with Migrantinnen Verein (Association of Turkish and Kurdish Migrant Women) and the Feministischen palästinensischen Archiv Berlin (Palestinian Feminist Archive Berlin) illustrate the political and artistic commitment to urgent issues, such as recognizing and honoring the largest Palestinian diaspora in Europe, which is located in Germany, in the face of the silencing of this country in the face of the ongoing genocide and the criminalization of those who denounce it or protest against it.

Aiming at a dialogue between generations, the project Mädchen machen Druck (Girls who print or press) has published the multilingual book “The Golden Oak”, which condenses 16 stories of resilience told poetically by migrant women for young women and girls. Its pages highlight, for example, the relevance of women's participation in the Sudanese revolution that began in 2018, which was followed by a coup d'état that has led the country to the political and humanitarian crisis it is experiencing today.

In-person or virtual meetings and the construction of collective projects become spaces for support and emotional and practical exchanges. In Berlin, women, mostly migrants and refugees, meet weekly to print and be part of a collective support network in Frauen machen Druck. In Cariri, Matriz functions as an open studio and a space for resistance to the exclusion of women from the tradition of popular printmaking. From this emerge projects such as Matriz - Festival de Grafias Feministas do Cariri, organized autonomously and which takes place precisely on these dates in the Brazilian northeast. It is within this context that other collective initiatives such as Pornósgráficas emerge.

The network expands with the Mulheres Gráficas project, which connects women from different parts of Brazil and Berlin in monthly online meetings to present works, propose actions and exchange experiences about the female presence in the graphic field. These initiatives are interconnected and can be found in the Network of Networks, connecting practices in countries such as Mexico, Egypt, Belgium, France, Türkiye and Kurdistan, with Brazil and Germany.

In Oaxaca, the Siqueiros Graphics Workshop has been operating for five years inside the Tanivet women’s prison. The existence of the printmaking studio in the penitentiary is of great importance to the lives of the inmates who frequent it. The studio is organized independently by local artists who work in four other penitentiaries in the region. One of these artists is Haydee Nucamendi, who, like other artists from Oaxaca, periodically organizes exhibitions under the title “Graphic Empowerment” at her gallery La Produtora Gráfica del Bosque, in Oaxaca, which are a reference for those who participate in this network.

Engraving, with its multiplier power, becomes a means of political influence and empowerment, which in this case means visibility, taking over spaces, and recognizing the power of collective action to effect medium- and long-term changes within structures. The engraved portrait, featured in the exhibition, allows women to come closer together and gain recognition, revising prejudices and confronting internalized misogyny, racism, and classism.

The artist from Ceará, Andrea Sobreira, a member of Matriz and the Bestas Marginais Project together with Carolina Piene, used the portrait to develop the Zugvögel project during her residency in Berlin, financed by the sale of prints – a concrete response to the need for mobility and exchange within the network beyond institutional approval.

Cleiri Cardoso, Zahra Peasey, Hanaa El degham, Eneida Sanches, Nireuda Longobardi, Nathaly Lavôr and Erivana Darc are artists from this network. Their works and positions show that feminist artistic practice is constructed both inside and outside collectives. While Cleiri delicately denounces the condition of women in her metal engravings, she problematizes the virtual absence - or almost symbolic presence - of women in relevant graphic events, which can be uncomfortable in the environment, but which becomes an important discussion about power structures such as sexism, racism and classism that are deeply rooted in the context of art. Zahra pays tribute to the women of the 1984 Manchester miners' strike in “No Going Back”. Hanaa brings political and social themes from Egypt and reminds us of the children who still play in Gaza. Eneida brings us closer to an ancestral spirituality that colonialism sought to destroy and that has historically been part of our resistance. Nireuda, Nathaly and Erivana retell the popular engraving from the Northeast from a female perspective, celebrating popular struggles and invisible protagonists. I myself am present, among other images, with the engraving of a bear, which I consider to be my indignant self-portrait