Description

Navigating the Labyrinth of Silence: Feminist Artists in Mexico

In the 1970s, two of the many new social movements to emerge in Mexico were the feminist movement and the “grupos” movement of politically oriented, conceptual art collectives. A core group of exceptionally talented feminist artists participated simultaneously in both movements. After briefly introducing several of these artists and their work within the context of Mexico’s post-1968 social movements, this article examines what McCaughan calls the labyrinth of silence that they encountered within the art world, the grupos, and the feminist movement. In each of these arenas, feminist artists ran into structural, aesthetic, and behavioral obstacles to full creative expression, participation, and recognition. Finally, the article describes some of the strategies deployed by feminist artists in Mexico to navigate their way through and around the labyrinth in order to articulate feminist aesthetics and politics.

feminist art, feminist movement, Grupos movement, Mexico, social movements

Citation: Social Justice Vol. 34, No. 1 (2007): 44-62