Visibilidad de la mujer artista cuencana: puesta en diálogo desde 10 casos contemporáneos, con una experiencia situada y un ejercicio de tráfico

Abstract

This research develops a feminist anthropology perspective as a situated experience. I have studied twelve, rather than the ten initially proposed, women artists born in the city of Cuenca, Ecuador between 1973 and 1987, including myself. Through life stories, built through personal interviews, observation and analysis of their trajectory, and a photographic record project with the collaboration of Fabiola Cedillo, I have developed, from the etnographic perspective, profiles for each of us, as an ilumination and passage, using the concept of traffic that allows us an interbreed between various disciplines, including art and anthropology. Trough, a comparative perspective I propose convergences around the meaning of being a woman artist in the local context, for this I analyze the body as a battlefield for women’s control in a markedly androcentric society, I study maternity and the decision for its realization or renunciation, and approach to the structural violence that defines many of personal or collective relationships. I also analyze the precarious labor and economic situation, characteristic of most of this group, among other aspects. But also, and above all, this study wants to demonstrate women’s daily struggle, of which even the actors themselves are not always aware, and understand the value of their work, frequently ignored, despite their great mobility capacity around the country, and in the world, searching for opportunities that many have never found in Cuenca. This study does not delve into aesthetics, but into the milestones that mark their careers in theatre, audiovisual production, dance, visual and performing arts, literature, photography and music. All this converges towards the sense of becoming a woman in the specific context of an intermediate Andean city. This is a necessary and urgent empowerment exercise.