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ROOM 2
Conjugating in The Plural
FOR ALL AGES
Event
They are plural, off-centre, multiple.
Conjugating in the Plural is a long-term research project about actions,
voices and powers in the feminine.
The invitation to exhibit the project at
the CIAJG is based on three different
formats: a mural intervention, a
poster and an audio recording. These
combined works emphasises the ideas of
diversity, horizontality and plurality, as
counterpoints to hierarchical systems, in
particular in the cultural environment.
Carla Cruz
All my independent women, 2012
Cartaz
Cortesia da artista
"Homenagem a todas as damas vimaranenses", Séc. XIX
Papel, madeira (moldura)
Col. da Sociedade Martins Sarmento, Guimarães
The mural intervention follows in the
footsteps of All My Independent Women (AMIW), a project that I started
in the city of Guimarães in 2005 (the
Sociedade Martins Sarmento). AMIW is a network of artists who use feminist methodologies to produce artistic
gestures. In the form of an open-ended
list, the project has been expanding and
exhibited in other cities (Coimbra, in
2010; Vienna, in 2011; London, in 2012).
It has also incorporated themes such
as the Novas Cartas Portuguesas (New
Portuguese Letters) (1972), the literary
work by the Portuguese writers Maria
Isabel Barreno, Maria Teresa Horta and
Maria Velho da Costa, and the “archive”
as a space for production, preservation
and performativity.
In the CIAJG, the
mural intervention weaves different
threads that connect the “powers of
persuasion” (“soft power”) pioneered
by women, alluding to the event at the
end of the 19th century, in which prominent female citizens from Guimarães
supported a project to detach the city
of Guimarães from the district of Braga,
followed by its subsequent union with
Porto.
The mural includes a commemorative painting about this event, that
belongs to the Vimaranense Fund of the
Sociedade Martins Sarmento.
The poster is a collaborative work
that involves the designers “Joana &
Mariana”, that addresses textures and
iconographies related to different
feminist struggles in Portugal. It
celebrates the collective force that
underpins all fundamental rights. It also
reminds us of the need for continued
defence of these rights. An offset print,
it is distributed for free.
The audio functions as a chorus of
voices - a polyphony – in which I
recount various historical episodes,
facts and assumptions, concrete actions
and utopias associated to groups of
Portuguese women. The guiding link
between the different episodes is the
search for a community, like that which
Adrienne Rich talks about in her book, Conditions for Work: The Common World
of Women (1976). This encourages our
work to go further than we had dared.
According to Rich, women “seek each
other out” in the community, and
thereby mutually strengthen each other.
Today, as then, we need to conjugate in
the plural, and strengthen and extend
our networks.
Podcast credit sheet
Text Carla Cruz • Text editing Gisela Leal • Reading Carla Cruz e Rita Eustáquio • Audio recording Carla Cruz, Luís Eustáquio e Rita Eustáquio • Audio editing Carla Cruz e Andi Studer
Musical tracks (excerpts)
Sisters, The Stepney Sisters, 1975 • Deceptacon, Le Tigre, 1999 • À Pátria, Viana da Mota, 1894 • Debout les femmes, 39 Femmes, 2018 (1971) • Com quem eu quero, Miúda, 2012 • Independent Women Part
I, Destiny's Child, 2000 • U.N.I.T.Y., Queen Latifah, 1993 • Assim Não, Gato Fedorento, 2007 • Mequetrefe, Arca 2020 • Bad Reputation, Joan Jett & The
Blackhearts, 1980
Carla Cruz is an artist, researcher and
teacher (EAUM). She has a PhD in artistic
practices from Goldsmiths College, London. Her recent artistic practice focuses
on different forms of coexistence in an
unequal society and damaged planet.
She is currently developing the project
“Associação de Amigos da Praça dx Anjx”
(Association of Friends of the Praça dx
Anjx) with Ângelo Ferreira de Sousa. Since
2013, she has developed the “Finding
Money” project with António Contador.
She co-founded the feminist collective of
artistic intervention ZOiNA (1999-2004),
and the Associação Caldeira 213 (1999-
2002). Between 2005-2013 she coordinated the feminist exhibition project, “All My
Independent Women”.