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Eroticona n. 4 and n. 2, two of Amèlia Riera's pieces in the exhibition

A stroll through Amèlia Riera's most contentious work

La Virreina Centre de la Imatge is dedicating an exhibition to pieces from the sixties and seventies by this unclassifiable creator.

Amèlia Riera's "objectes cruels" are the protagonists of the exhibition Mrs. Death, which you will find at La Virreina Centre de la Imatge until 6 November. Born in Barcelona in 1928 (and passed away in the same city three years ago), Riera embraced painting, installations, drawing and graphic work. However, the curator Pere Pedrals wanted to focus the exhibition on the objects she created from the mid-1960s to the end of the 1970s, in which the author's permanent critique is evident. The exhibition's programme reads: "A battle that not only fights against the Francoist regime, but takes aim at everything else too. This requires new readings from today’s perspective to show just how current the issues are: the subversion of archetypes used to represent women and their sexuality, a reflection on the lack of communication between heterosexual couples, the visibility of power relations, and bodily disciplining — the governed, subjugated and even expropriated body — and subjectivity".

Mrs. Death is divided into four rooms, in addition to the piece Eroticona hambrienta that addresses pedestrians from the window of the Palau de la Virreina. The first room revolves around some archetypes used to represent women and their sexuality: the perfidious woman, the devourer, and the witch. In the second one, there are two installations on the lack of communication between men and women. When you reach the third room, you will find the central piece, Li van portar enganyat (1971), which criticises the death penalty and, at the same time, scrutinises what we now call obstetric violence. It is a space that deals with disciplining and power relations. Finally, the Ex-voto series and the work Bagul de quarta, which was exhibited at La Virreina in 1970, are the focus of attention in the fourth room of the exhibition.

Amèlia Riera is considered an unclassifiable artist. Her view of surrealism is far removed from her contemporaries. She is also a pioneer when it comes to treating artistic practices from a gender perspective. You can find more information at this link.

Publication date: Thursday, 21 July 2022
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