Alicia Framis Once Upon a Time There Was a Woman (2022)

Alicia Framis’ (SP, 1967) practice builds on the artist’s everlasting fascination with human existence within contemporary urban society, in which overstimulation, inequality and uncertainty are, unfortunately, omnipresent. Through this, Framis’ work often places people in front of a moral mirror.

As gender archeology is slowly unmasking the social construction of gender identities of the past, it is becoming clear that women were not just passive participants. Yet women still face and have to deal with this misunderstanding in current society. By placing the typical representation of femininity and fertility, a venus, on a pedestal with her power stunted by a reflecting glass ceiling above her, the artist creates a symbol of women throughout the history of humanity. With the use of humor, Alicia Framis denounces the situation in which women are and have been, and strives for a more equal world for everyone.

By placing the sculpture on a mirrored pedestal, the spectator inevitably has to relate to the artwork, and do some self-reflecting.