TIJUANA
— A new international exhibition of contemporary art brings together artists from around the world to explore the many dimensions of gender-based violence. In “Off the Beaten Path: Violence, Women, and Art,” set to open January 22 at the Tijuana Cultural Center in the EL CUBO museum, 33 well-respected artists from 26 countries create new stories through their artwork addressing gender-based violence from a global perspective.
“Throughout the world, women and girls are victims of countless and senseless acts of violence,” says Randy Jayne Rosenberg, executive director of the nonprofit group Art Works for Change and the show’s curator. “The range of gender-based violence is devastating, occurring, quite literally, from womb to tomb. It occurs in every segment of society, regardless of class, ethnicity, culture, or whether the country is at peace of war. Often, the victim’s only crime is that she is female.”
The idea for the show was born after Houston artist Susan Plum created an installation project, Luz y Solidaridad (“Light and Solidarity”) for Art Works For Change’s 2005 exhibition, The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama, that addressed the plight of the women of Juarez, Mexico. More than 800 murdered bodies of abducted young women have been found in Juárez and Chihuahua since 1993 and more than 3,000 women are still missing. “While creating Luz y Solidaridad, I knew that this was only one seed being planted for a much greater problem globally of violence toward women,” says Plum, who was raised in Mexico City. “It has been a dream of mine for many years to participate with others in bringing some cohesive awareness to this global problem.”
Premised on the visionary potential in art, the exhibition avoids tabloid and sensational imagery. The invited artists were asked “to help us create new representations through their artworks and, in doing so, help us feel and understand the essence of the problem of violence against women,” says Rosenberg.
The goal of the exhibition is to help create a new conversation on the full spectrum of issues that surround this important topic. Within the context of the exhibition, Art Works For Change explores various definitions of violence against women and girls as it relates to the themes of Violence and the Individual; Violence and the Family; Violence and the Community; Violence and Culture; and Violence and Politics. The hope is that the audience leaves the exhibition with a better understanding of the roots of abuse, a feeling of empathy, and an awareness of choice in their actions and beliefs.
These problems, though widespread, are often invisible, says Rosenberg. “When we encounter violence against women, we often overlook the facts and experience a sort of blindness. We choose not to see the devastation of domestic violence, calling it ‘a family affair.’ Honor killings of women in faraway regions of the world become nothing more than a ‘cultural difference.’ We find it hard to believe that sex trafficking and exploitation occur in our cities, close to home. The rape and torture of women during armed conflict is the inevitable ‘messiness of war.’ As such, the political and systemic sources of violence are often underestimated or overlooked.”
“Off the Beaten Path” will run through April 4, 2010. For more information, visit www.ArtWorksForChange.org.