Coser el río (Sewing the River) is a visual and affective narrative generated from the work of Victoria Gil (Badajoz, 1963), a leading Spanish artist whose practice has been aligned with feminist movements since she first started out in the late 1980s.

Pieces created specifically for this exhibition are displayed alongside earlier creations that put her oeuvre in context and help to shape a space that eludes forms of control and invites visitors to let their thoughts and desires flow.

This show features paintings, drawings, records of performances and textile practices in which the artist clearly aims to undermine the hierarchy of genres, formats and media that has dominated art history. Her proposals have to do with the abuse of power, the political construction of bodies, the taboos imposed by religion, the objectification of women in patriarchal societies, the consequences of decolonial processes and the effects of capitalism on our identities, desires, bodies and subjectivities, although she also explores the topic of love and the relationships that grow out of our inevitably subjective interpretations of that feeling. The fundamental tools of Gil¿s praxis¿transgression and a unique sense of humour¿are apparent in the selected works.

Victoria Gil¿s art challenges the triviality of the binary system of classification established in official heteropatriarchal history that only allows for two types of women, good or bad, because this artist is a female Houdini who routinely escapes from the shackles in which society binds women. She also helps many others to find freedom: witches and sorceresses like Circe (Circe hace un brebaje [Circe Makes a Potion]), highlighting the emancipatory power of their knowledge; women like Teresa of Ávila and María Alcaforado (in the series ¿Qué mandáis hacer de mi? [What Do You Want of Me?]), who managed to exercise their liberties despite belonging to one of the most conservative institutions in human history; and pirates like Mary Read and Anne Bonny, whom she has immortalised in a picture that acknowledges the power of friendship and subtly defies assigned identities by suggesting a queer dimension. 

In addition to women whose names have been recorded in the annals of history, Gil also pays tribute to the anonymous female citizens whose lives and labours are no less fundamental: farm workers (Estábamos tan tranquilitas [We Were Just Minding Our Own Business]), caregivers (La buena vecina [The Good Neighbour Lady]) or colonised subjects (Los locales trabajan [The Locals Work]). In these pieces, the artist salvages the domestic memory of women whom official narratives have ignored and omitted. She does so by employing the textile arts as a creative language, for she understands that sewing, embroidering and weaving are not female pastimes relegated to the domestic arena, but a form of feminist political action with the potential to initiate social debates.

Victoria Gil claims to work intuitively, but hers is undoubtedly a well-trained and informed ¿intuition¿, enriched by books, films, exhibitions, conversations and experiences, and also by reflections, which she generously shares with us so that we can sew many more rivers together.

Curator: Esther Regueira

· Download Leaflet here.

· Dowlnoad Press Release here.

· Download Information Sheet here.