Even though I could just rewrite a biography, or simply go through her plays or nature of her relations with artistic and political figures, I have decided to go beyond facts and focus on Mary Wigman's teachings and legacy. There are countless lessons we can learn from her life and struggle, but I think it is essential to revisit them from a more contemporary point of view. That is to say: despite the fact that we tend to appreciate these avant-garde movements from the first half of the twentieth century, and regard them as "revolutionary", I personally think there are aspects we sort of take for granted. Having grown up "in the future", we tend to see these currents as a part of History, necessary to develop further lines of expression. However, we somehow detach ourselves from the deep philosophy lying beneath these revolutionary movements, circumscribing them to relevant portions of the past. In this article, it is my aim to bring Mary Wigman's lessons to the present, proving that revolutions are timeless and everlasting.
When going through Toshiko Okanoue's work (born in 1928, in Kochi), one can easily relate her style and dreamy aesthetic to the Surrealist Movement in Japan (1925-70). However, it was not until 1952 that she actually came accross the surrealist world, when her encounter with the artist and poet Shuzo Takiguchi in 1952 was decisive. It was he who -being impressed by the quality of her work- acknowledged her compositions as surrealist, introducing her to the works of Max Ernst. Even though after this concurrence she had some prolific six years -with over a hundred works in her portfolio-, her career was suddenly terminated by her marriage in 1957. Fortunately enough, in the mid-1990s her work was rediscovered, leading to a number of exhibitions around the world, as well as two monographs: Drop of Dreams (2002) and the portfolio The Miracle of Silence (2007).
It is no news that women have historically found it harder to develop themselves as professionals in diverse male-dominated work environments. This is even truer in the case of female artists in the 1930s: Stern had to struggle against all imaginable and unimaginable odds, in order to become one of the pioneers of modern photography in Argentina and a referent of protest art in the world. Apart from having opened the prize-winning ringl+pit photography and design studio with her friend Ellen Auerbach in 1930 in Berlin, she was also able to present the first one-woman exhibition in Buenos Aires in 1943. Besides, from 1948 to 1951, she contributed weekly with a series of photomontages entiteld "Sueños" (Dreams) to the column "Psychoanalysis Will Help You". Published in the Argentine magazine Idilio (Idyll)-edited by sociologist Gino Germani, under the pen name Richard Rest-this distribution was widely read by a female audience; thus contributed to forge their identities through psychoanalitic views on the dreams of working-class women. Mobilized to social ascendance by the promises of President Juan Domingo Perón-as well as the figure of his first wife Eva Perón-these women found themselves with the urgency of understanding their role within their households and society.
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Butoh, Art, Tarot, Spirituality, Mythology, Philosophy & much more! Author
Luciana Sayanes is a performing artist, teacher and author, aiming to share perspectives on Butoh Art & Spitituality. Archives
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