“Feminism gave dignity back to my existence, and so did art”: Sofía Weidner

I don’t promise that you will leave this exhibition happy and with a peaceful mind. I didn’t want to create art that would cause comfort.confessed Sofia Weidner during the inauguration of Black Musesat the Mexico City Museum. Sad, painful and furious emotions are captured in the works that transcend today because when seen by the public they mean shelter, the abandonment of loneliness and a dream come true. Just as feminism restored dignity to my existence, so does art.the creator declared.

I wanted to create art that would help me express emotions and memories that could no longer live within me. I wanted to heal through art, I sought to break the taboo of sadness and grief, those that are carried in secret and solitary in our rooms, those that I can rarely pronounce.were some of the words uttered at the opening ceremony before a large audience waiting in the courtyard of the venue in the Historic Center.

Oil paintings, embroidery, gouache, sculptures, crochet and illustrations are techniques used in 26 pieces that make up the first solo exhibition of Weidner, an artist born in Mexico City in 1991. With a career in illustration, Black Muses It brought together work carried out over the last 10 years by the designer, a graduate of the Universidad Iberoamericana and a master’s student in Design and Visual Communication at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. These are years of work, of deep, intense, uncomfortable, secret emotions.he indicated last Saturday, August 10.

A blanket with a drawing of a flowering uterus is visible as soon as you enter the room and states: In the face of sexist violence, feminist self-defense. She made it for the march on March 8, 2020. On one side, a succession of portraits of faces encrusted with scarlet crystal tears express sadness. Bloody knees on a chair protrude from another wall.

You are not alone

I realized that what I felt alone, most likely many women have also felt it and then I felt less alone, less singled out.Sofia recounted, Unfortunately there are many of usbut with the hope that in this women’s meeting sisterhood and support networks can emerge.

You pass is the instruction at the entrance to a fabric house set up in the living room. Inside, a red spotlight shines next to a distressing tangle of strips of the same color. I have a house. Somewhere in the mountains my house sprouted. I watered the earth with dreams and art, its roots anchored in the shade of two cedarsis part of the poetry scribbled on one of the fragile walls.

The curator of the exhibition, Magaly Hernández, said that something in common with the creator and many others is that she also suffered violence. We find in feminism a way to express ourselves and not remain silent. It is important to know that even if we have suffered violence, this exposure was a cathartic act..

Through the artist’s works, one can perceive pain and silence. Sofia noted: You are not alone, I do believe youand urged people to break the silence, blame and report.

José María Espinasa, director of the museum, commented that Black Muses responds to women’s timewhich is not just a slogan, but rather encourages exhibiting both experienced artists and young and emerging artists, as is the case of Sofía Weidner.

In this regard, Argel Gómez Concheiro, head of the capital’s Culture Secretariat, highlighted that six years ago Claudia Sheinbaum, now the country’s president-elect, as head of government of Mexico City asked for a festival to be held and it was not an occasion for a few days a year, but a permanent policy of opening cultural venues and programming the presence of women with the display of their work. In this time of women, it is like Sofía Weidner, militant, sensitive, who questions and challengescomes to this parade of muses.

A fundamental element of the transformation that Mexico is experiencing is undoubtedly the demand of women to change the structures, the relationships; they challenge men, they have taken to the streets and the squares, the cultural venues, the museums and the theaters.. A tremendously powerful form because it goes to the feelings and sensitivity of people, is the art that women are producing.

The exhibition Black Muses will be open to the public until November 10, at the Mexico City Museum, at Pino Suárez 30, Historic Center.