An artwork rooted in truth: this is the premise that Paula Parisot brings to her current body of work, presented in this exhibition. In a world where the concept of post-truth continues to grow and gain prominence, this work emerges as something urgent, something that needs to be said—or, better yet, shouted.
Art, that phenomenon which has shaped history from the very beginning, from cave paintings to the present day, asserts itself here as the cry of a silenced woman, one who needs to claim her place and does so through her art—a space where censorship should not, and increasingly cannot, reach.
Women are increasingly taking up space in this realm, not by chance, but as part of a historical process of rebellion against “machulência” (a term coined by @jaque.conserta to describe toxic, domineering masculinity), after millennia of struggle, particularly since the feminist movements of the past century. Today, the entire history of art must be revisited to include those who have been silenced.
Paula Parisot draws on her own personal and particular history to unleash this cry, which reverberates into the future while already echoing the stories of all those silenced women artists—including my own mother—whose collective strength once again fuels this delicate rebellion, this gentle and loving revolution, no less powerful for its tenderness.
Her story, shaped by family tragedies, speaks from this personal perspective while bringing flowers and love to break the silence imposed by capital. Capital can also be understood as the most powerful weapon of a world rotting under the force of brute power—a force that must be replaced and that therefore strikes back with its own weapons: violence, war, silencing, horror, and barbarism. What else can stop this global monster if not tenderness, beauty, peace, spirituality, and art?
Through this work, Paula engages with all these questions in a practice that is essential today: the creation of new utopias. Nothing is better suited than art to help us imagine new realities. Art is a mantra that vibrates with new energies and may, perhaps, one day in the not-too-distant future, bring us a more compassionate, peaceful, and gentle planet. Here, we invoke Pachamama, our great Mother Earth, whose strength flows into a planet embodied as woman—a world with more truth.
