Manuela MenĂŠndez Besada Lombana
ART AND CURATORIAL PROJECTS manuelabesadalombanda1@gmail.com
APOLO, BRANDING PLEASURE AND EMPOWERMENT. 2016 Apolo is a vibrating device made out of a Pepper Spray. The object was modified and as the visitors of the exhibition tried to spread the Pepper gas it would start vibrating in their hands, resignifying a popular self-defense object that was designed for women. The object resembles the so-called empowerment advertisement of sex shops.
CARE LABOR, FROM INSIDE AND OUTSIDE. 2016 LINK TO PDF: https://issuu.com/manuelam.besadalombana/docs/texto_pags__1_
Care labor, from inside and outside is an artist book and a field diary of my work with domestic workers. The book plays with diverse images from the colony and the contemporary Colombian imaginary of the role of domestic workers. It aims to dignify and politize the figure of this displaced women that are forced into working for the upper middle class while living in their households in a room that is designed for such purposes. This project took two years of meeting the workers, having workshops and creating a mobile law office.
MY HOUSE IS NOT YOUR HOUSE https://vimeo.com/186371479 https://vimeo.com/186371090 My house is not your house is a project on the usual household design which usually includes a room for the domestic worker, always placed behind the kitchen and laundry room. The project was displaced as a multimedia installation that resembles the real estate sell offices in Colombia.
SLAY GIRL, SLAYYY! http://lev-studio.com/manuela/ https://vimeo.com/249702180 Slay girl, slayyy! was a project in which the mercantile image of feminism is unveiled throughout the exhibition. Part of the exhibition was a collection of different t-shirts from fast fashion brands with feminist slogans. A video work showed an archival selection of film in which women were portrayed in protests or holding shields/banners with women empowerment slogans, most of the archive came from advertisement or mainstream movies which represented feminists in very instrumental ways. A video installation flickered between corporate feminist hashtags like #alternativecurves from a plus-size fashion blogger that often appears wearing H&M or ForEver21, #prettycurious from energy company EDF, or #eariereal from the bran lingerie aerie. A website with archive videos from Instagram fitness models which exercise while cleaning and taking care of their children acompanied by images of paintings that represent women working while taking care of their offspring.
TRANSACCIONES INFORMALES BogotĂĄ, Colombia Curated by Manuela Besada-Lombana and Esteban Rivera 08.2017
Videoart Festival in Bogota, Colombia with the support of the Instituto de Distrital de las Artes – IDARTES (Bogota City council of the Arts). The film program was screened on the Cinemateca Distrital (District Film Library Theater) lectures ocurred with the support of local private and public universities. The Festival centers on the possibilities of decolonial uses of video and film as emancipation tool. Therefore it emphasizes on video as a conceptual category which is able to articulate cultural interaction and exchange as creation strategy. The current selection of works references massive media narratives, imaginaries, and consumption. The conscient use of video format leads to a critical use of the media and the understanding of the conceptual implications within it.