Exhibition "Women in Struggle! Archives of Political Memory"

The São Paulo Resistance Memorial, museum of the Secretariat of Culture, Economy and Creative Industry of the Government of the State of São Paulo, presents the exhibition Women in Fight! Political Memory Archives, curated by Ana Pato. The exhibition has as its guiding thread the oral history collection of the Memorial da Resistência that makes up the Regular Collection of Testimonies program, with testimonies from women who experienced State violence during the period of the Civil-Military Dictatorship (1964-1985) and during Democracy.

Looking at the period of the Civil-Military Dictatorship from a gender perspective is the thread that weaves this exhibition, and through testimonies, we address the collective struggles of women for Memory, Truth and Justice and for fundamental rights. What are they fighting for? How do they fight? What are your stories?

Fight for Memory, Truth and Justice

We begin with an invitation to listen to testimonies from the Civil-Military Dictatorship Memoirs Collection, in the installation listening sheet music (2023), by Bianca Turner. The narratives of these women take us to visit other archives, such as that of Inês Etienne Romeu, the only survivor of the clandestine torture center known as House of Death, in Petrópolis/RJ.

His courage to face the repressive apparatus of the Dictatorship motivated an international campaign for freedom, of which the film Inês (1974), by Delphine Seyrig, is an important historical document. It is also Inês' accusations that bring us closer to the story of the missing politician Heleny Guariba. His memory is presented in the film's sets Where's Heleny? (2022), by Esther Vital, embroidered in burlap by women, based on workshops held at the museum.

The imaginary struggle of the black thinker, activist and poet Beatriz Nascimento is present in three poems written in the 1980s and which provide an urgent and contemporary portrait of the ways of resisting violence, impunity and racism.

The deep marks of the dictatorship intertwine the past and the present, as shown in the series From mourning to fighting (2023) directed by Val Gomes. The videos bring together testimonies from the Memories of Violence in Democracy Collection with members of the collectives Mães de Maio da Leste, Movimento de Familiares de Victims do Massacre de Paraisópolis and Mães de Osasco/Barueri.

Fight for Rights

From the mid-1970s onwards, women's activism for rights gained strength. Demands for health, education and decent housing, present at meetings of the South Zone Mothers' Clubs, met the feminist agendas of the Union of Women of São Paulo. Today, they continue to inspire projects such as Promotoras Legales Populares.

The visual record of popular struggles is central to the construction of the country's political memory, as Nair Benedicto's photographic collection reveals. View workshop images Knowing the Female Body (1984) in the building that was the headquarters of Deops/SP, where many of the women present here were tortured, is a gesture of freedom.

Achievements in the fight for rights are the result of the dedication of entire lives, such as that of Laudelina de Campos Mello in defense of domestic workers, and of organizations such as IN.FORMAR, created to support and document social movements.

Oral history, circle meetings and conversation circles connect us with the School of testimonies, from Grupo Contrafilé, and with the memory paths mediated by the Bajubá Collection, around the actions of the Mulheres da Luz collective and the experiences of LGBT+ communities in defense of their identities and sexualities.

From life stories fractured by pain to networks of affection built in resistance, this exhibition is an act of memory of women's political strength.

Service
Exposure | Women in Fight! Political Memory Archives
From October 7, 2023 to July 27, 2024
Wednesday to Monday (closed on Tuesdays), 10am to 18pm