The Mendonca Collection inaugurated the exhibition El país de las mujeres (The Country of Women) at the Juan Salazar Cultural Center of Spain, as part of the second edition of Pinta Sud ASU 2023, which runs from August 7 to 13.

The exhibition takes its title from a referential book on the social history of women in Paraguay, published by German researcher Barbara Potthast in 1996: Paradise of Mohammed or Country of Women? The Role of Women and the Family in Paraguayan Society during the 19th Century (Asunción, ICPA).

During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, European travelers and artists arriving in Paraguay literally found «a country of women». That is what they saw. Perhaps that is the intimate motive of this exhibition: to shake up the memory and expose this «country of women». And of key women in culture and art.

There is a quest to make visible the social condition of women in Paraguay. The works reveal visions and interests that represent diverse social and cultural problems linked to the condition of being a woman. The exhibition includes works of engraving, painting, drawing, sculpture, objects, installations, photoperformance, video art and sound pieces.

The works exhibited are all made by women, except for three guest artists who, from their own place, try to address the complexity experienced by their colleagues.

In an interview with Journal Nacional Paraguay, the curator Adriana Almada explains: «The invisibility of women’s artistic production is a long-standing phenomenon to which both the academy and the art circuit have paid great attention in recent decades, and this can be seen in the appearance of names of deceased or very old artists whose work is just beginning to enter collections and museums and the art historiography. Paraguay does not escape this situation».

Artists participating in the exhibition: Fidela Álvares, Nancia Álvares, Mabel Arcondo, Olga Blinder, Rosa Brítez, Bettina Brizuela, Claudia Casarino, Leonor Cecotto, Milena Coral, Leonor De Blas, Ruth Diego, Doriana Falcón, Floriberta Fermín, Adriana González Brun, Mónica González, Teresita González, Yuki Hayashi, Sara Hooper, Julia Isídrez, Edith Jiménez, Estela Juliuz, Angélica Klassen, Francene Keery, Guillermina, Sara Leoz, Laura Mandelik, Laura Márquez, Mónica Matiauda, Esperanza Mayor, Nélida Mendoza, Silvana Nuovo, Cucherane Marina Picanere, Josefina Pla, Susana Romero, Lotte Schulz, Mabel Valdovinos, Miguela Vera, Mayelí Villalba, Karina Yaluk and Keka Zaldívar. The list is completed with works by José María Blanch, Arnaldo Cristaldo and Joaquín Sánchez, as well as visual documentation from Confines del Paraguay, which refer to the issue of women in Paraguay.

Arte al día, Miami, 12 de noviembre de 2023