For the Cuenca Biennial, Rossella Biscotti has chosen a very particular space: a room whose walls are covered with paintings that portray all the presidents throughout the history of the House of Culture in the Azuay Nucleus, among which, only we find two women located in the background, at the bottom.
The artist conceives a specific installation for this room based on traditional Ecuadorian blankets, some from donations and others acquired from communities of women artisans or merchants. Sewn together and folded continuously, she makes a sculpture of the exact size occupied by the portraits of the presidents, covering them in a similar way to the way in which female figures have been overshadowed in the history of art and cultural spaces.
With this, Biscotti creates a landscape that covers the faces of the portrayed, a kind of second painting that blocks and cancels the portraits. Thus, it pays a subtle tribute to these women, while alluding to the roots of our cultural system and gender inequality.
The work contains in itself the laborious work and the months it took to get the blankets and vindicates the importance of collaboration. That is why the artist invites visitors to donate blankets, which, added to those used in the making of this sculpture, will be donated to women's groups at the end of the Biennial.
In addition, the artist wants to recover the idea of the blanket as an element of protection and care, and make reference to all the invisible work, the time invested and unpaid by women in the home throughout history, a job that has not it is recognized in our economic system.
Acknowledgements: CMCC, Hogar Esperanza Foundation, Arévalo Íñiguez Family, Segarra Pulla Family and other private donations.