Monica Mura’s artistic work is committed and engaged from feminist conceptual and discursive positions, as can be seen throughout her artistic trajectory and particularly in her multidisciplinary and multidimensional exhibition project E ti que (de quen) vés sendo?.
The body, the socialized signifiers implied by sex/gender categories in patriarchal societies, but also the openings and dynamism of these categories toward a diverse, elastic plurality—transgender identities included—without overlooking the memory of what we have been and what we largely still are today: men and women behaviorally differentiated in hierarchy, dependency and roles. But also time and its passing, presences and absences, in its absolute form death, and until that moment life, full of new possibilities. And communication, the word, used for definitions but also for emotions. All this seems to configure a broad territory in which the artist forges her visual, sonic and tactile creative discourse, permeated by a spirit and practice of expanded performance, in order to ask herself and ask us, to think and reflect upon: What are you? What are we? Whose are you?
And she does so with enormous multidisciplinary fluidity, occupying the space with installations that integrate photographs, objects, sound, video, texts and performances, configuring visual, sonic and experiential narratives through which one can wander, reflect and even act and intervene, modifying and recreating pieces. Installations in which photographs sometimes derive from or stem from videos, or incorporate images of objects that later appear physically in the exhibition space, or texts that question us, call our attention, resonate, or are created and developed by the active audience, who may also participate in the performances offered by the artist, following script-like instructions.
From a forceful feminist standpoint, the artist immerses herself and leads us to wander, mentally and sensorially, through the body—fundamentally women’s bodies—objectified and configured under the male gaze. But also through gender, identities and their layers of socio-cultural and historical construction, their nomadism and performativity. This can be seen in a series of works from the artist’s project, such as the multimedia installation Tú yo yo tú, which can be read as an identity recomposition made up of fragments from different origins; similarly, the interactive work with the audience Rompecabezas and the piece titled Depende, where the public is encouraged to play and recombine bodies and identities. Also the work entitled De-ge(n)erar Re-ge(n)erar, another interactive installation, a fashion show and a performance involving the exchange of clothes and accessories, in a trans hybridization of genders, as well as a Transdiccionario and a Transvideo, in relation to language.
Also concerning language, one may cite the performances Palabras Rojas, Palabras Doradas on the weight of language in creating a non-sexist society; Ellas cuentan, another installation in which oral storytelling and memory play a fundamental role; or Transoración, another sound installation composed of 135 words beginning with “trans,” structured as a “Sui generis” prayer.
But also time and its passage, with its ravages, old age and attempts to mitigate them, as in the work Antes y después. And on the invisibilization of women and the preservation of their memory, as in Pre(au)sencia, or the installation-homage to two creators, such as the Spanish surrealist painter Maruja Mallo and the Italian designer Edina Altara; and the multidisciplinary installation Poder Ver Ver Poder, which can be read as addressing invisibilization or diffuse identity.
A powerful feminist exhibition discourse that prompts thought, reflection and feeling, from concept to the most intense perception.