With the collaboration of:
Deputación de Pontevedra
Celeste Garrido (Marín, Pontevedra, 1972) has extensive experience in research and exhibition projects closely related to identity and gender issues. Specifically designed for the MARCO, Your Eyes Tell… comprises a careful selection of mostly new produced works in different formats which build a story around the body as material, medium, subject and receiver, with special mention to the female body and to the dress as symbol.
Celeste Garrido deals with the body as a conceptual issue, with special attention to the dress. The dressed body is the subject's body and through this clothing, data such as gender, social and cultural condition become exposed. Through clothing we publicly disclose an identity, and in Garrido’s work dress becomes vital, precisely because it is one of the differentiating mechanisms which conform female clothing.
Her project Nupcial [Bridal], which spans a number of works, considers the bridal dress as a symbol of marriage within a patriarchal system underlying in our culture and that exercises a clear dominance over the woman still today, conditioning her freedom and her autonomy.
Her artistic discourse arises from the relationship between the creative experience and the feminine condition. By incorporating objects from everyday life and organic materials into her work –especially those for domestic use such as honey, jelly, grapes or 'rose petals’—, Garrido alludes to the fragility of the body, the passing of time, and the changing nature of things; instability, together with the idea of beauty that persists in our collective imaginary directly refers to desire and seduction. Garrido’s works often allude to a woman whose actions are conditioned by someone else’s gaze, with an emotional dependence, which makes her own will to vanish.
In recent months, Celeste Garrido has developed a new artistic project which reflects on child abuse with special attention to sexual abuse on children and adolescents. Called Infancias rotas [Broken Infancies] in reference to the book of the same title written by María Martínez Sagrera. Her project confronts the abuse of minors through artistic creation, denouncing the living hell that boys and especially girls face for just being born a girl in some developing countries. But Garrido also aims to expose a reality of silenced episodes of child abuse that take place around us, under an appearance of kind normality, which irreversibly hurt some people in the depths of their being. They eventually destroy their childhood. and will condition their life forever, especially when these events occur within the inner circle of the child like family or school.
Committed as an artist and as a woman, Garrido’s projects are developed from a feminist perspective and a critical stance. The artist appeals to the viewer and make them complicit with that commitment. In this context some of the works that are part of his new project materialize.
The first of the pieces is a vertiginous crib-nest that rises to top of the room. This elevation turns the tulle that covers the crib into a nuptial veil which extends up from the top all the way to rest on the floor. The piece alludes to the commitment or pact that has been established since ancient times between cose relatives, to offer girls in marriage in exchange for benefits. Many marriages are agreed, both in the upper social classes –for convenience between families, in search of a better social status– and in the lower ones, as a result of the extreme need that leads parents to commit true atrocities when marrying girls as young as ten or twelve, in exchange for some object of value or for some favour. The marriage of these girls becomes a space of torture assumed by some societies as part of the consequence of being born a woman, depriving them of any opportunity to develop as a duly skilled and free person, with the capacity to decide on their own future.
The second piece is made up of a girl’s white dress, which seems to levitate on a circular surface. It is an organic structure that evokes the unsettling seed of the lotus flower covered with small holes. Dark bright purple grapes inserted inside in the form of threatening eyes direct their gaze towards the girl. As we approach the center of the circle, the eyes become intimidating tentacles, which lurk under the dress, generating a feeling of anguish and discomfort that gives title to the work: “Your Eyes Tell What Your Mouth Silences”.
As a whole, the dress recalls the white lotus flower, which represents the highest state of a human being. It is related to the perfection of spirit and mind; originally immaculate, originally complete in nature. It symbolises innocence and purity of heart. It represents love, passion and compassion.
Documentation
The Library-Documentation Center at MARCO has prepared a documentary dossier, which brings together links to articles and other information about Celeste Garrido which is available on the website www.marcovigo.com at Library/News and Exhibitions/Present.
Learning Activities
For groups of Pre-School, Primary, Secondary, High School and others.
With the support of: Obra Social “la Caixa”
From 20 October, 2020
Place: exhibition halls and Laboratorio das Artes
Hours: Tuesday to Friday from 11am to 1:30pm / For booking please call +34 986 113900/113904
Information & guided tours
The exhibition staff is available for any questions or information, as well as regular guided tours:
Due to the health regulations, the Museum’s guided tours are limited to 5 people (including Museum staff)
Daily at 6pm
‘A la carte’ group tours, please call +34 986 113904 / 113900 to book
Photo:
Celeste Garrido. Olvido, 2009
Carmin trace, resulting from the action of kissing the wall to compose the word olvido [oblivion], 31 x 155 cm
