Yara Pina

Plowed  bodies (2019)

shade and earth plowed with ploughshare

traces of action

 

Starting from the relationship between the woman's body and the land as a means of domination and recurrent manifestation of violence of patriarchal and colonial origins, I propose in this action to refer to an agricultural instrument of very old origin and traditionally submitted to the monopoly of the male subject - the plow - to symbolize not only man's control and exploitation over land and the means of production, but also over women's bodies. And from this, also, reflect on how violations suffered, in colonial Brazil, by different groups of women systematically structure oppressions that perpetuate until today as a way to make them increasingly vulnerable to sexual violence, femicide and the exploitation of their bodies. At first, a ploughshare was used as a weapon to attack my shadow, leaving fissures that were then filled with red earth. Once on the ground, I used the instrument to reproduce the furrows of a land penetrated by the plow.