La feria de las flores y una película de dios: Aproximaciones a dos proyectos colaborativos de Núria

LA FERIA DE LAS FLORES Y UNA PELÍCULA DE DIOS: APROXIMACIONES A DOS PROYECTOS COLABORATIVOS DE NÚRIA GÜELL

LAIA MANONELLES MONER

ABSTRACT

In this communication, based on the work of the artist Núria Güell, we will delve into the potential of art to focus on various social problems and to challenge the viewer. Specifically, it will analyse the project La Feria de las Flores (Medellín, 2015-16), in which the artist hired four underage girls -victims of sexual abuse- to take guided tours of the Museum of Antioquia, selecting the works of Fernando Botero that would serve as a support to explain the exploitation they experienced. This proposal will be related to Una película de Dios (Mexico, 2018) in which Núria Güell collaborated for several months with eight minors, who had suffered sexual exploitation, to co-curate an exhibition with Christian religious paintings that would serve as a starting point to narrate and share the abuse they had suffered.

These projects, in which the organisations and carers who accompany these minors also participate, weave networks of mutual help and make visible what society wants to hide. Likewise, the artist explores the relationships with the artistic institutions, dismantling a patriarchal view of the History of Art based on a critical review. In both proposals, creation becomes an instrument for denouncing child sexual abuse while at the same time initiating processes shared with the collaborators, who present themselves as accomplices, as political subjects, as agents of change. Based on these initiatives, we will reflect on procedural practices and on the political dimension of giving and taking a voice.

BIOGRAPHY

She has a doctorate in Art History from the University of Barcelona, where she is currently an associate professor. She has been a consultant lecturer on the UOC's Master's Degree in China and Japan Studies: Contemporary World and has also taught on the Master's Degree in Chinese Studies in the Department of Humanities at Pompeu Fabra University. She has published the books Arte experimental en China, conversaciones con artistas (2011) and La construcción de la(s) historia(s) del arte contemporáneo en China: conversaciones con curadores, historiadores y críticos (2017). In 2017 he co-curated, together with Nora Ancarola and Daniel Gasol, the exhibition Politizaciones del malestar en Arts Santa Mònica in Barcelona and, in 2010, he curated the photographic exhibition Construyendo China: visiones de una transformación at the Instituto de Estudios Ilerdenses in Lérida.