"Mírame a los ojos" por Lorena Wolffer

4 de abril 2014

Mírame a los ojos es una intervención cultural participativa coordinada por Lorena Wolffer que pretende visibilizar las definiciones subjetivas de 79 mujeres mexicanas —que viven en el Distrito Federal y Querétaro— en torno a su género.El género es quizás la primera categoría que determina nuestras identidades. Sin embargo, "no es una identidad estable; tampoco es el locus operativo de donde procederían los diferentes actos; más bien es una identidad débilmente construida en el tiempo: una identidad instituida por una repetición estilizada de actos", como afirma la filósofa Judith Butler. Considerando que la diferencia biopolítica y binaria del género es la que fundamenta la discriminación sistemática de las mujeres, resulta imperativo preguntar: ¿cómo es que las mujeres definimos y construimos nuestras identidades genéricas? ¿Qué narrativas y afirmaciones empleamos para identificarnos? Y, finalmente, ¿qué revelan éstas sobre nuestros entornos privados y públicos?Mírame a los ojos investiga las singulares formas en las que cada una de las mujeres participantes se define y desliza la construcción de su género al dominio de los visible e inteligible, desde las elecciones que encarna hasta los mandatos culturales que (re)produce voluntaria o involuntariamente.Parte de este proyecto está en exhibición en Ex-Teresa Arte Actual en la Ciudad de México del 5 de abril al 1 de junio de 2014. Desde hace más de veinte años, el trabajo de Lorena Wolffer (México D.F., 1971) ha sido un sitio permanente para la resistencia y la enunciación en la intersección entre el arte y el activismo. Mientras en su propia obra artística aborda asuntos relacionados con la fabricación cultural del género y tenazmente defiende los derechos, la agencia y las voces de las mujeres, también ha producido, facilitado y curado decenas de proyectos con diversos artistas en plataformas como el museo, el espacio público y la televisión. Desde la creación de radicales intervenciones culturales con diversas comunidades de mujeres hasta la elaboración de nuevos modelos pedagógicos para el desarrollo colectivo de conocimientos situados, estos proyectos se producen dentro de una arena que reconoce la pertinencia de los lenguajes experimentales y desplaza la frontera entre lo que conocemos como alta y baja cultura. Wolffer es una artista comprometida y su quehacer —un escenario para la voz, las representaciones y las narrativas de otras y otros, habitualmente invisibles en el contexto mexicano— articula la posibilidad de una realidad cimentada en el respeto y la equidad.

Look me in the eyes is a participatory cultural intervention coordinated by Lorena Wolffer that aims to make visible the subjective definitions of 79 Mexican women - who live in the Federal District and Querétaro - around their gender. Gender is perhaps the first category that determines our identities. . However, "it is not a stable identity; neither is it the operating locus from which the different acts would come; rather it is an identity weakly constructed in time: an identity instituted by a stylized repetition of acts", as the philosopher Judith Butler affirms. . Considering that the biopolitical and binary difference of gender is what underpins the systematic discrimination of women, it is imperative to ask: how is it that women define and construct our generic identities? What narratives and statements do we use to identify ourselves? And, finally, what do these reveal about our private and public environments? Look Me In The Eyes investigates the unique ways in which each of the participating women defines and slips the construction of their gender into the domain of the visible and intelligible, from the elections that embodies even the cultural mandates that (re) produces voluntarily or involuntarily. Part of this project is on display at Ex-Teresa Arte Actual in Mexico City from April 5 to June 1, 2014. Lorena Wolffer Twenty years old, the work of Lorena Wolffer (Mexico City, 1971) has been a permanent site for resistance and enunciation at the intersection of art and activism. While in her own artistic work she addresses issues related to the cultural fabrication of the genre and tenaciously defends the rights, the agency and the voices of women, she has also produced, facilitated and curated dozens of projects with various artists on platforms such as the museum, the public space and television. From the creation of radical cultural interventions with diverse communities of women to the elaboration of new pedagogical models for the collective development of situated knowledge, these projects are produced within an arena that recognizes the relevance of experimental languages and displaces the border between what we know as high and low culture. Wolffer is a committed artist and her work —a stage for the voice, representations, and narratives of others and others, usually invisible in the Mexican context— articulates the possibility of a reality based on respect and equity.

To be a woman is to be the one who procreates

Being a woman is building yourself as such and enjoying it

I'm a woman because that's how I was educated

God created me as a woman. I believe him and there is no doubt

I am me. Energy that multiplies to infinity

Being a woman is being aware of how you feel

Being a woman is comfort with myself without being imposed on how to be

Being a woman means finding strength every day

I am a being that faces life. I trust myself

Being a woman is being strong and that we do not care what society says

Being a woman is wanting to be something beyond what society wants us to be, beyond stereotypes

Being a woman, I like to think of it as an identity under construction, a space of possibilities

To be a woman is to be strong, hard, whole, scratchy, whole and broken

Being a woman has been what life has given me, my husband and three children

We women are a bad storyteller of the “feminine sociery”

Being a woman is a conflict in a society that often denies freedom for the simple fact of not having a penis

Being a woman is having the ability to generate and imagine 50 million colors without being able to choose just one.

Woman: to be feminine and masculine, to be me without imposition and by choice

Demonstrating that gender does not matter is a constant struggle against beliefs, myths, religion and politics

I am not the same as anyone, only myself

Being a woman means that I am also capable of being intelligent to achieve what I set out to do

Being a woman is a party. It is waking up every day to learn something new about myself and my body

Being a woman is a construction that suits the system under which society is ruled

Being a woman is being capable, independent, strong and with the ability to choose

Being a woman is a constant struggle to be what you want to be

I am the magic of sensuality and the force of the sea combined in fragility

I am not a slave, I am not what they expect me to be. I am vulnerable but strong

Women are generators of life and changes

Women: strength and sensitivity within a biologically beautiful body

As a woman, many times it is necessary to impose respect so they don't discriminate against you

Being a woman is to give life, live and survive

Being a woman is bleed out and stay alive

Being a woman enables me to fulfill my purpose in life efficiently

I don’t know if I am a woman; I barely found out who I am

You were a woman during 9 months too, do you remember it)

Woman: be what I want and need to recognize and love myself in a complex world

I am a brazen lady, a flirtatious gentleman, a coyón boy, the machorra of which your father warned you

Being a woman means all the letters of the word precision

Being a woman is having the possibility of giving life in conjunction with the man

Being a woman is a duality between tenderness and innate love, and strength for everyday life.

Woman: give life, total surrender, love, patience, intelligence, fragility, understanding

Being a woman: have the fortune or privilege to conceive, give birth and breastfeed to another human being and have it within one for 9 months

Being a woman implies freeing yourself from problems and not feeling marginalized

To be a woman is to be flexible, secure and honorable

Being a woman is the most important thing on earth, we have the greatest responsibility regarding children, we are stronger, and at the same time more susceptible, because we always have the feeling at our feet

In Mexico, in these times, being a woman is a pride that is carried with a great sense of humor

Being a woman: the most beatiful thing on earth

I am a woman because when I was born, they checked me, they saw that I had female genitals, therefore I am a woman

What defines me as a woman is my freedom, the freedom to love me as I am and to be able to love. The freedom that my interior gives me to choose

I am a woman because I am weak, determined and I have strength

Being: being-me, me-them, them. Fragmented and complete, solid and liquid. Kaleidoscopic

I am a woman because I am unique in this planet

Being a woman begins with accepting and loving how wonderful my body is. It is the beginning of a love story

Being a woman is Lupita D’Alessio’s song “Hacer las maletas”

Being a woman means that we can get ahead of all obstacles

Being a woman is a set of challenges for daily life in competition with the opposite sex, but being a woman is a privilege

Woman is the biological gender I was born with, the role and the rules of behavior with those who educated me, with which I do not always agree. It is both advantage and disadvantage

God made me and what made me a woman was being a mother

I amk a woman because I am a mother and very feminine

Being a woman is leadership, is being able to face everything without needing a man next to you

Being a woman is a blessing and strength: blessing because I have life and strength because God has strengthened me along my way

Proyecto apoyado por el Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes a través del Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte, año 2011

"Tribu" por Lezlie Milson

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