Some artworks have the power to provoke and seduce at the same time, making us doubt our correctedness in “liking” something that represents a shocking reality. That is the case of Argentine artist, Alicia Chamot, whose artistic techniques create a visual blotter and enhancer in the face of a project dedicated to repudiate gender violence in all its manifestations.

“Memory of the Missing” (“Memoria de las que faltan”) is a powerful show presented by Alicia in Buenos Aires. She started it as a project in 2012 with “Gender Violence / Aggravated by Relationship,” which was exhibited at the National Visual Arts Salon in Buenos Aires the same year.

Convinced that art is the most powerful weapon against behavior bestiality, Alicia has followed up with a principal panel and various smaller works. The show was open to the public last week at the Casa de la Cultura in Quilmes, Buenos Aires province. For the main panel, she asked the community for photographs of faces of women, whose participation represented their rejection to all types of violence. The piece has 192 photographs in reddish hues, sewn over spheres, together with empty black modules representing missing women.

Most participants are smiling. Their faces seem like fragments of a multitude of “we the women of all times, anywhere.” The piece is a commemoration of those who are missing, and at the same time represents a celebration of life. Therefore, Alicia presents life and death while protesting gender violence.

TelarAcha® is Alicia’s own technique, which combines regular weaving, with simultaneous volume weaving while still on the loom. The piece in exhibition displays burned sections depicting death by fire, which happened to several Argentine women some time ago.

                                                            The panel measures 8 X 10 feet (2.5 X 3 meters), and includes weaving, moulding, sublimination, burn, and embroidery.

Contact: aliciachamot <aliciachamot@gmail.com> https://www.facebook.com/Telaracha