naiz: agenda – Women and public space, axis of the Estíbaliz Sádaba exhibition

Estibaliz Sádaba presents the exhibition ‘Desdoméstica’ at BilbaoArte. The Bilbao artist was awarded a scholarship by the center during 2020. This video and photography exhibition is the first of the seven proposals selected last December in the Open Doors exhibition to be exhibited in 2021. It can be visited in the Urazurrutia Hall until March 18th.

In ‘Desdoméstica’ Sádaba (Bilbo, 1963) reflects on the historical difficulty of women’s relationship with public space and their seclusion in the domestic space. It works mainly through practices such as video, performance, photography, sound and collages. “From these experimental feminist works I try to transmit collective, personal and historical experiences”, explains the artist.

Among the pieces that we will find in the Sala Urazurrutia is a series of photographs and a video-performance under the title ‘Las Sobrantes; cartography of Rome from a gender perspective ‘, developed in Rome in 2017, on the presence of women in history, very active, but invisible. You can also see a series of collages on the importance of domestic work in society.

At the back of the room, the visitor will be able to see the projection of ‘Indomitable Actions’ on the role of women in society from the time of matrimony, through civic architecture. The video includes the recording of a series of performances in which, among other actions, it is possible to see how the artist tattoos houses –architectures historically assigned to women– inspired by those made by the painter Giotto, on women’s backs, or a Tableau vivant series, with representations of women in different classical paintings.

Finally, on one of the walls you can find a domestic atlas in which the artist presents different images that she has been building over many years, with photographs, drawings and video animations. “A sort of organic constellation to represent the artist’s imagination, in which the main references with whom she works and that she has been building can be seen,” they point out from BilbaoArte.

The artist integrates feminist theory and activism with the aim of creating networks and establishing genealogies, so that the work is not isolated. In his videos, he uses the body as an instrument, a place for experimentation; later, during editing and editing, their actions and bodies are edited and reconstructed. The result is the incorporation of new voices and sounds “until now relegated to the domestic and peripheral space of the city.”

In addition, the Art House Zinema in BilbaoArte will host during the last week of the exhibition the projection of the audiovisual pieces that give the exhibition its title. On Tuesday, March 16, ‘Desdoméstica I’ will be screened, 58 minutes long, consisting of the pieces’ Las Sobrantes; cartography of Rome from a gender perspective ‘and’ Domestic Subversions’. On Wednesday March 17th you will be able to see ‘Desdoméstica II’, 68 minutes long, with the pieces ‘Las Filanderas’ and ‘Campos De Acción’, and ‘Las Incontables’. The screenings will be at 7:00 p.m.

With the inauguration, the book that accompanies the exhibition with images of Sádaba’s work and the text ‘Cartas a Elisa’, by the curator and art critic Suset Sánchez Sánchez (Havana, 1977) is also published.

The opening hours of the exhibition are from Monday to Friday from 5.30 to 8.30 pm, with free entry with limited capacity.