© 2023 Pussart Collective

Not Your Marilyn

| 2023 COLLECTIVE EXHIBITION
| CURATED BY PUSSART COLLECTIVE
| FRAUENKREISE (BERLIN)

Like a plump ham behind the meat counter, the female body hangs out in the real and digital public.

Stripped, soulless, dehumanized.

Whether on cinema billboards or on the tabloid next to the petrol station checkout, whether when surfing the net or in “original” advertisements: every day we see an image of women that originated yesterday and – if it is not decisively painted over – threatens to become even uglier tomorrow.

We are not greeted by a film scene from the TV magazine, but by the lavishly fitted, high-laced décolleté of an actress. If you believe the respective marketing department, SUVs, smartphones and all the other insignia of our affluent society can hardly be sold without a woman’s meat side dish.

On the billboard at the red traffic light, lingerie models, precisely drawn with the standard template, loll about. Exciting contortions in a whiff of nothing, docile devotion at all times. Meanwhile, her attractiveness is as well defined as it is unreachably contradictory:

The skin is covered, hairless and flawless (naturally, please!), in summer with a delicate beach tan (note: not from the grill!), in winter like Snow White (note: not anaemic, just innocently white!), narrow nose ( Preferably surgery!), the mane voluminous, the muscles well-proportioned (but definitely not masculine!), the body with full curves here and underweight there, every trace of cellulite and motherhood retouched, the panty liner perfumed (menstruation? Never heard of it! ), belly in, chest out, the blink of an eye lascivious (and childlike at the same time!), the lips slightly pouted, full of promise, oh yes, yes – just not too cheap-obviously, the art director just wants to play a bit, doesn’t he?!

Being a woman in today’s media still means being an object.

Object for the fantasies of grown men and the dreams of little boys. The target of all the cravings, desires and needs that the opposite sex is willing and unconditional to gratify. So permanent appearance of a perfect MILF hybrid, a conglomeration of saint and whore, Marilyn Monroe and Madonna and Child.

Because the compulsion to optimize does not end with the external appearance. Magazine covers and articles propagate happy women who, in personal union, keep their husbands happy, jump through muddy puddles with their offspring, polish the household sparkling clean and, of course, make a career at the same time. Finally, for a dose of no-equipment workout, 20 new yoga poses, and a few on-trend cocktails to combat symptoms of fatigue, the modern woman works like clockwork.

And as if all that weren’t enough, the Internet contributes millions and millions of eyes that attach themselves to the female body and painfully press on the trigger points of times that are far from over. The consequence? An army of broken Barbies and Kardashians, an armada of broken beauty queens and sex symbols stripped of all dignity and self-determination.

Welcome to the digital patriarchy.

But the PUSSART collective rebels and uses art to make the problem and its consequences visible. Highly individual, provocative as usual, humorous and yet serious, the artists set an exclamation mark against an absurd, tasteless and perverted image of women in the mass media.

The 4th major PUSSART exhibition illuminates what femininity means in the public representation and perception of the 21st century. And says out loud what many women have been thinking for a long time:

It’s enough – we are not your Marilyns!

Visual Artists : Anna Sans / Alicia Piqueras / Becky Jaraiz / Laró Agustina / Gabriela Husz / HasenKunst