By María María Acha-Kutscher / filmsforaction.org
Indignadas (Outraged Women) consists of a visual record of participation of women in public protests around the world, including social movements like 15M (Spain), Occupy Wall Street (NYC), and feminist movements like Femen, Pussy Riot, SlutWalk, and Alfombra Roja (Red Carpet, Peru). I turn photographs from press and witnesses into drawings that I prints onto large format tarps for exhibitions in public spaces.
The aim of the Indignadas series is to make women’s efforts more visible and place women at the center of these social struggles. A memory bank that shows future generations that social changes throughout history were made by women and men together.
The drawings show a female body not offered as support for the man’s eyes, but as support for the political message. By transforming photographs into drawings, I set them in the supposed “timelessness” of art. This is another way to connect with society, by using the language of art to inmortalize these women’s actions, preserve the memory of the protest, and keep the social movements alive.
Josephine Witt interupts speech by European Central Bank President president Mario Draghi, sprinkles him with confetti and shouts “End ECB Dick-tatorship”
One of the protesters of DREAM DEFENDERS raises her arms and shout ‘hands up, dont shoot’ outside the James Lawrence King Federal Justice Building where the U.S. Attorneys Office, Southern District of Florida, is located on August 14, 2014 in Miami, Florida. The protesters say they want justice for Mike Brown, shot and killed by police in Ferguson, Missouri on August 9. (Image: based on photo of Joe Raedle)
A protester for the 43 missing students. November, 2014, Mexico City.
The FREE THE NIPPLE campaign is an equality movement that uses social media to fight against nudity
censorship laws in America.
FEMEN, Brussels 2013
SlutWalk, Brazil 2012
SlutWalk, London 2012
Pro-choice protest outside Parliament against moves to restrict access to abortion. July 2011, London
About María María Acha-Kutscher. Born Lima-Perú, 1968. Feminist visual artist. Co-directs with Tomás Ruiz-Rivas the experimental art project Antimuseo. Lives in Madrid and works globally. The main focus of her work is woman. “Herstory”, the struggles for emancipation and equality, and the cultural construction of femininity. Her work does not adhere to any particular language or style, nor is it identified with specific techniques or formats. Acha-Kutscher organizes her work in long-term projects, and for each one develops a unique language and methodology. She is possibly one of the few artists of her generation who defines themself as feminist, because of the political dimension of her work that plays a dual role: it is an artistic product in itself and also an instrument covers a social need and also contributes to political transformations.