Solo show “WOMAN TO GO” by Mathilde ter Heijne at CDIS, Santander. Spain.

Mathilde ter Hejine intercepts such aspects of postcard culture but uses it instead to depict photographs of unknown women taken between 1839 and 1920. Farmers, beauties of the Belle Époque, nuns, pregnant women, tattooed women, African, Indian, Japanese, portraitures or full body, smiling or not; hundreds of visages and enigmatic expressions are stacked in rolling display racks, to be taken away free of charge. The stories of these women are a mystery, erased and forgotten, their lips muted in complete anonymity. On the back of each postcard, a few printed lines of text divulge biographies of better known women who lived in the same epoch. Their precious stories survive to recount the lives of female individuals who fought for their goals in a world dominated by men. These are adventurous tales of unique women from all over the world – artists, tea traders, pirates, writers, researchers, partisans and suffragettes – all pioneers of freedom and independence. Woman To Go is a living archive and an active research started by ter Hejine in 2005 and still ongoing.

[fragment of the text by Caterina Avataneo]

info

title: WOMAN TO GO
artist: Mathilde ter Heijne
idea: María Gracia de Pedro
coordinators: José Luis de la Fuente & María Gracia de Pedro
translations: Diana de la Cruz
design: Rosana Moreno
text: Caterina Avataneo
dates: 7 March 2019 – 21 April 2019
venue: CDIS, Centro de Documentación de la Imagen de Santander
Calle Magallanes, 30, 39007 Santander, Cantabria

press:
http://santander.es/contenido/noticia/cdis-empodera-mujeres-lucharon-por-igualdad-muestra-woman-go
https://www.bonart.cat/actual/el-centre-de-documentacio-de-la-imatge-inaugura-woman-to-go-mathilde-ter-heijne/