Indignadas

2012 –

Drawing, pop, activism, feminism

Acha-Kutscher’s images present visibility of what is easily forgotten, of the historical narrative that continues to exclude us as it is being written. «Fuck your morals», «Women do not give up», «Let it be a law», «I believe you» or «It is not abuse, it is rape» are part of this use of the words inscribed on the bodies of women as a mantra reminding us that sometimes yelling is not enough.

– Semíramis González

Overview

Indignadas (Outraged Women) is one of the series of Women Working for Women, a long term project for public spaces that recovers the women’s historical memory. The series consists in a visual report of women taking part in public protests around the world, as part of social movements such as 15M, Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter or feminist movements like Pussy Riot, Femen, SlutWalk, #Metoo, Ni Una Menos, among others. Acha-Kutscher creates digital drawings based on press photographs and visual testimonies, which are printed in large-scale formats designed for display in public spaces, as a way of bringing the protest back out into the streets. The series comprises over 200 drawings and serves as a lasting testament to the critical role of women in struggles for social change.

Indignadas began to take shape in 2012, in an attempt to call attention to the work of female members of the Spanish 15-M movement – known as the Indignados – who protested against financial inequality and political corruption. As the series expanded, it came to include depictions of protesting women from all around the world.

The artistic style derives inspiration from graphic novels, pop art, and political posters. The images of the series are also freely distributed online under a creative commons license, so they may become part of the information flow and serve female activists across the globe.

Indignadas es una de las series de Mujeres Trabajando por Mujeres, un proyecto de largo plazo concebido para espacios públicos que recupera la memoria histórica de las mujeres. La serie consiste en un registro visual de la participación femenina en las protestas públicas en todo el mundo, como parte de movimientos sociales como el 15M, Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter o grupos y movimientos feministas como Pussy Riot, Femen, SlutWalk, #Metoo, Ni Una Menos, entre otros. Acha-Kutscher crea dibujos digitales a partir de fotografías de prensa y medios alternativos, que se imprimen a gran escala para mostrarse en espacios públicos, como una forma de devolver la protesta a las calles. La serie comprende más de 200 dibujos y sirve como testimonio duradero del papel fundamental de las mujeres en las luchas por el cambio social.

Indignadas comienza a tomar forma en 2012, en un intento de llamar la atención sobre la labor de las mujeres en el movimiento 15-M, conocido como los Indignados, que protestan contra la desigualdad financiera y la corrupción política. A medida que la serie se expande, se incluyen representaciones de mujeres protestando en todo el mundo.
El lenguaje visual se inspira en las novelas gráficas, el arte pop y los carteles políticos de los años 70. Las imágenes de la serie se distribuyen gratuitamente en Internet bajo licencia creative commons, para formar parte del flujo de información y servir a las activistas de todo el mundo.

Texts and interviews

Semíramis González, Indignadas, ADN Galería 2021. Exhibition text
Marta Mantecón, Indignadas
Entrevista a María María Acha-Kutscher, M-Arte y Cultura Visual, 2013 (Spanish)

Grants and Awards

2012 Matadero/Madrid City Council
2015 Premio Arte en Valla. Culture Office, Rivas Vaciamadrid City Council
2019 Grant for artistic production, Government of the Community of Madrid

Book

María María Acha-Kutscher, Indignadas. Edited by [M]UMoCA. Photo Theda Acha

Record since 2012

2024

**April. London**
A demonstrator participates in a Pro-Palestine march organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC). Chants of “From the river to the sea Palestine will be free” were heard as well as placards saying “Stop the genocide”. Digital drawing based on a photo by Guy Smallman.

2023

**March 8, Turin, Italy**
*I am not yours, you are not mine*. Woman holds a heart balloon during the International Women’s Day.

2022

**February. Worldwide**
Began the protests against Russo-Ukrainian war. Digital drawing based on a photo by Jeenah Moon.

**February 15. Madrid**
Activista de Femen España en una acción de protesta para denunciar la violencia machista en el Día de San Valentín. 15 de febrero de 2020. Dibujo digiral basado en una foto de prensa de Muddy Ignace.

**July 9. Washington D.C., USA**
Sonia Glenn demonstrates against the state’s stric new abortion law, which bans abortion at six weeks with no exception for rape or incest. Digital drawing based on a photo by Xinhua
/Líu Jie

**Worldwide**
Women across the world are cutting their hair in protest after **Mahsa Amini**, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman, died in police custody after allegedly wearing the hijab «in an improper way». She was visiting Tehran with her family when she was stopped by morality police officers enforces of the Iranian govermment’s conservative rules on how women should dress. Digital drawing inspired on photo by Anadolu Agency.

2021

**January 14. Argentina**
Se promulga la lEy 27.610 de Interrupción Voluntaria del Embarazo, hasta la semana 14 de gestación. Esta ley también contempla el aborto sin límite de tiempo en casos de violación o riesgo para la salud o la vida de la persona gestante.

**Paris, France**
Femen activist in solidarity with Julie. *Julie* as she is referred to in court, was allegedly raped by 20 firefighters from the Paris region between 2008 and 2010. It began with firefighter Pierre C. when the girl was just 13. Julie finally pressed charges in 2010, but the case has taken more than a decade to reach France’s supreme court of appeal. Three of the 20 firefighters have been charged with sexual assault. Julie’s lawyers argue that all 20 firefighters should be charged with rape.

**May 19, Bogotá, Colombia**
*My body, my rules, my temple*. Demontrator gathered in Monumento a los heroes during a new day of mobilizations of the national strike taking place in Colombia.

2020

**February, Madrid**
El cantante ‘Putochinomaricón’ desfila en Madrid Fashion Week
con el mensaje: «no soy un virus». Como protesta a los actos racistas que estan sufriendo ciudadanos
chinos a raíz del coronavirus de Wuhan.

**March 8, London, UK**
participant at the **International women’s Day** march.

**May 28. Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA**
A woman yells at a sheriff’s deputy during a protest following the death of **George Floyd** an anarmed African American man who pleaded that he couldn’e breathe why he was held down with a knee by yhe police officer Derek Chauvin during **8 minutes and 42 seconds** of agony.

**September 2020, Aurora, Colorado U.S.**
**Wall of Moms** members attended a protest against police brutality.

2019

**June 21. Spain**
*Its not abuse its rape*. *La Manada Rape* (Wolf Pack) *Case* began with the gang rape of an 18-year-old woman on 2016 during the San Fermín celebrations in Pamplona, Navarre, Spain. Five men ﬁlmed themselves repeatedly attacking her in the vestibule of an apartment building. They were sentenced to nine years in prison for sexual abuse, but acquitted of rape. Across Spain, women took to the streets to protest. In a sentence handed down on 2019, the Spanish Supreme Court reversed the lower court and affirmed that the men were guilty of rape.

**México**
Explodes mass protest to demand end to violence against women and
broader changes in a country where an average of ten women are murdered every day and virtually all such crimes go unpunished. This protest was a reaction to the rape of a teenage girl by four police officers in Mexico City.

**March 8, Nairobi**
**International Women’s Day** march.

**November 20. Valparaiso, Chile**
Born *A Rapist In Your Way*, a ﬂash mob to protest against rape, organized by the feminist collective *Lastesis*. Hundreds of feminists performed the song in clothes women would wear while out at night, and with black bands tied over their eyes.

**March 15, Viena**
An Austrian youth shouts slogans during a
climate protest, as part of the **Fridays for Future**
movement, a global day of student protest aiming to spark world leaders into action on climate change. Digital drawing based on a photo by Joe Klamar.

2018

**U.S.**
Born **#MeToo** movement. The phrase Me Too was initially used on social media in 2006, on Myspace, by sexual harassment survivor **Tarana Burke**. She was inspired to use it after being unable to respond to a 13-year-old girl who conﬁded to her that she had been sexually assaulted. Tarana said she later wished she had simply told the girl: Me too. Following the exposure of the widespread sexual-abuse allegations against Harvey Weinstein in 2017, the movement began to spread virally as a hashtag on social media, after American actress Alyssa Milano posted on Twitter, “If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote Me too as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem.”

**Santiago de Chile**
Demonstration against sexist violence and for a non-sexist education. Digital
drawing based on photo by Rodrigo Abd/TT.

**Argentina**
*Rich woman abort, the poor die*. **Marea Verde** rally.
The Marea Verde (Green Wave) is a feminist movement, whose
symbol is the green hankerchief, associated with the National Campaign for the Right to Legal, Safe and Free Abortion. Since January 2021, abortion in Argentina is legal up to
the 14th week of pregnancy.

**Santiago de Chile**
National feminist march organized by student
entities. The red handprint
across the mouth has become a global symbol of
violence against women.

**October, Whashington D. C., U.S.**
Protest to show solidarity with **Christine Blasey Ford**, who accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were teens. Atrium of the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington. Digital drawing based on photo by Manuel Balce Ceneta.

**March 8, Buenos Aires, Argentina**
*We Want Us All Alive*. **International Women’s Strike**. March 8. Digital
drawing based on photo by Vale Dranovsky/ Poderosas Project organized by M.A.f.I.A.

**Philadelphia, U.S.**
*Handmaid’s* protest. The red-and-white costume worn by Margaret Atwood’s handmaids in her 1985 novel *The Handmaid’s Tale* and its recent TV adaptation, is one of the most powerful current feminist symbols of protest. Digital drawing based on photo by Michael Candelori.

**December15, Paris, France**
Artist Deborah de Robertis. dressed as «Marianne», the national symbol of the French Republic, facing off with a female French police officer. During a demonstration by the **yellow vests** movement (gilets Jaune) to protest against rising costs of living they blame on high taxes. Digital drawing based on photo by Valery Hache.

2017

**Santa Fe international bridge,** **El Paso, Texas**
Women from Mexico and U.S. braid their hair together in a silent demonstration
against the immigration policies of President Donald Trump.

**Madrid, Spain**
**Femen** activist runs to grab the crotch of a life-sized wax statue of U.S. President Donald Trump during an unveiling ceremony at Madrid Wax Museum.

**Madrid, Spain**
**Orgullo Crítico** rally (Critic Parade). Orgullo Crítico is the name of several annual protest demons- trations of LGBTI people held in Spanish cities. Critical pride is an alternative to the original pride parades, which they consider depoliticized and institutionalized.

**December 19, Nabi Saleh**
11-year-old **Ahed Tamimi** confront israeli soldier in the village of Nabi Salih in the occupied West Bank in the Palestinian territories in 2012, after the army arrested her older brother. Tamimi has become a Symbol of the Palestinian Resistance for the Internet Age. In 2017, Ahed was detained by Israeli authorities for slapping a soldier. The incident was ﬁlmed and went viral, attracting international interest and debate. Tamimi was sentenced to eight months in prison after agreeing to a plea bargain and released on 2018. Digital drawing based on photo by Abbas Momani/ AFP.

2016

**Santiago de Chile**
*I scream for the one who can’t*. **Ni Una Menos**
demonstration.

La imagen tiene un atributo ALT vacío; su nombre de archivo es tess_asplund_indignadas-edited.jpg — **May 1, Borlange, Sweden**
**Tess Asplund**, an Afro-Swedish social activist, stepped out in front of 300 neo- Nazis marching through the city of Borlange, and faced its leaders with her ﬁst in the air. Digital drawing based on photo by David Lagerlöf.

**Lima, Perú**
**We are 2074 and Many More** movement, do a demonstration to demand justice, in front of the office
of the Peruvian Prosecutor who is in charge of the case of the 2074 reports of forced sterilizations performed in Peru in the 90s. Most of the victims are indigenous and Quechua-speaking peasant women.

**August 13,** **Lima, Perú**
**Ni Una Menos** march, to reject the violence against women and demand from
the justice system just sanctions against the guilty. The woman in the foreground on the left with her arm raised is Nancy Lange, wife of the Peruvian ex-President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.

**October, Brussels**
Protest against a proposed ban on abortions in Poland. Digital drawing based on Photo by Zuma Wire.

**U.S.**
**Nasty woman** is a feminist movement. The name takes the phrase used by presidential candidate Donald Trump to refer to opponent Hillary Clinton during the third presidential debate.

2015

**January 7. Paris**
Digital drawing inspired by a
press photo of a protest in response to satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris.

**June 26. U.S.**
Civil organization Human Rights Campaign working for equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
Americans, celebrates after Supreme Court declares **same-sex marriage legal**, Washington, D.C. Digital
drawing based on photo by Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post.

**August 23. U.S.**
National **Topless** Day

**Madrid**
**Femen** **Spain** activists protesting in Cibeles Fountain against the Ley Mordaza (Gag Law). The Spanish law includes ﬁnes of up to 600 euros for failing to notify authorities about demonstrations in public areas, even peaceful protests.

2014

**January. Spain**
Se crea desde la AAC, Asociación de Autoras de Cómic, **WOMBASTIC**, unaplataforma gráﬁca de apoyo a las manifestaciones y movilizaciones encontra del proyecto antiabortista de Alberto Ruíz Gallardón. El dibujo muestra a la activista peruana Parwa Oblitas de Alfombra Roja.

**Abril 14. Chibok, Nigeria**
Digital drawing in response of **276 missing girls** kidnapped from the Chibok Government Secondary
School by Boko Haram Terrorists.

**July. UK**
Brazilian journalist and activist **Nana Queiroz**. This was a commissioned illustration for the New Internationalist magazine, Issue 474. Queiroz, struck a blow against victim-blaming in 2014 when she posted a photo of herself topless with the words *I don’t deserve to be raped* written across her body. It was her outraged response to a survey, whichclaimed that 65 percent of Brazilians thought that a provocatively dressed woman deserved to be raped. The post went viral, with thousands of women and men uploading their own pictures.

**July 17. New York**
**Black Lives Matter** protest, 2014. BLM was formed in 2013 in U.S. by Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi and is a decentralized political and social movement protesting against incidents of police brutality and all racially motivated violence against black people.

**September. New York**
Columbia University art student **Emma Sulkowicz** was raped in her dorm room. As a protest she have carrying a mattress with her everywhere she goes until her attacker is expelled. This action was part of her thesis, an endurance performance called *Carry That Weight*.

**October. Mexico City**
Demonstration to demand the safe return of the **43 Mexican male students** from Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College.

2013

**March, Tunez**
Tunisian **Femen** activist **Amina Tyler**, posted topless photos of herself on Facebook. In one she wrote My body belongs to me, and it’s not the source of anyone’s honor. She was arrested by Tunisian authorities and charged for conducting «provocative acts».

**May, Spain**
Born Femen Spain, founded by Lara Alcázar.

**Brussels, Belgium**
Femen activist. Digital drawing based on photo by Olivier Hoslet/EFE.

**July, Lima, Perú**
Activists from **Alfombra Roja** (Red Carpet), a Peruvian artistic-feminist movement that manifests itself through interventions in public spaces. Its aim is to make visible other forms of political thought, that are ignored and to show the
consequences of denial of these rights especially in young girls in situation of poverty in urban rural and marginal areas. Digital drawing based on photo
by Paolo Aguilar.

**November. Turin**
**Nina de Chiffre** besa el casco de un oﬁcial de policía en protesta por las
cargas policiales, durante una manifestación contra la construcción de un tren de alta velocidad. Posteriormente Chiffre es acusada de abuso sexual
por el sindicato de la policía italiana. Dibujo digital basado en una foto de Marco Bertorello.

2012

**New York City, U.S.**
**Occupy Wall Steet** protest.
OWS was a protest movement against economic inequality that began on 2011, in NYC’s Wall Street ﬁnancial district.

**Mayo 28. Estambul**
Estallan varias manifestaciones masivas contra el gobierno turco, desencadenadas por el intento de demolición
del parque Gezi. Las protestas contra la violencia policial y el autoritarismo
se extienden por todo el país. La mujer de rojo se convierte en el símbolo de
estas protestas. Dibujo digital basado en una foto de Osman Orsal.

**London. U.K.**
**SlutWalk** is a global feminist
protest movement against rape culture, committed to dispelling the myth that sexual assault victims are
to blame through their choice of dress, consump-
tion of alcohol, or their sexual history. Canadian
students Heather Jarvis and Sonya Barnett organized the ﬁrst SlutWalk in 2011, as a reaction to a police officer, Michael Sanguinetti, who
suggested in a safety class at York University, that female students could avoid sexual assault by not dressing like “sluts”.

**December. U.S.**
**Pink Loves Consent** campaign. Feminist group: FORCE leaves consent- themed panties in Victoria’s Secret stores to protest against rape culture. Pink Loves Consent is a collection of panties
with ﬂrty, sexy and powerful statements that remind Pink panty-wearers and their partners to practice Consent.

2012. 15M, Spain

*Indignadas. Indignado antes de nacer*, 2012. Dibujo digital basado en una foto de Carlos Matesanz Rodríguez. Colección MAS. Museo de Arte Moderno y Contemporáneo de Santander y Cantabria

*Indignadas. 15M*, 2011/2017. Colección CA2M. Museo Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo

Indignadas. Toma la calle, 2011, Madrid e Indignadas 15M, mayo 12, 2012, Madrid. Colección MNCARS. Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía

Exhibitions

EVERYTHING IS TRUE – NOTHING IS PERMITTED
Group exhibition
Curator: Kendell Geers in collaboration with apoliticalorg
BRUTUS Space, Roterdam 2024
Photo Aad Hoogendoorn
+ info

INDIGNADAS
ART AGAINST GENDER – BASED VIOLENCE. SO MANY WOMEN IN ONE AND THE SAME
Group exhibition
Curator: Semíramis González
Centro Cultural La Nau, Universidad de Valencia 2023
Photos Eduardo Alapont
+ info

*PUBLIC LIFE*
Group exhibition
Curator: Clarisa Appendino
Centro de Arte de la Universidad de La Plata/BIENALSUR, La Plata, Argentina 2023
Photo Bienalsur
+ info

CULTURAL PROGRAM
Artistic direction: Semíramis González
Instituto de las Mujeres/Ministerio de Igualdad, Madrid 2022
+ info

*12+10: ARTE CONTEMPORÁNEO DEL PERÚ*
Group exhibition
Curator: Claudia Arbulú
Fundación Carlos de Ambéres, Madrid 2022

*EL MON REFLEX*
Group exhibition
Curators: Laura Baringo and Quim Deu
Spai MercArt de Sant Just Desvern, Barcelona 2022
+ info

EL ÁRBOL DE LA RABIA
Group exhibition
Curator: Semíramis González
EACC Espacio de Arte Contemporáneo de Castellón, Castellón 2022
Photo María Lamuy
+ Info

*FORTALEZAS*
Group exhibition
Curator: Santiago Martínez
Sala Concepción Arenal, Centro Cultural Los Arenales, Santander 2022

COMMUNICATING VESSELS. Collection 1881-2021
Episode 8. Exodus and Communal Life
Group exhibition
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid 2021
+ info

COLECCIÓN XX: HISTORIA DEL ARTE
Group exhibition
Curators: Tania Pardo and Manuel Segade
CA2M. Museo Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid 2020
+ info

INDIGNADAS
Solo exhibition
ADN Galería, Barcelona 2021
Photos Cecilia Díaz Beritz
+ Info

WE INTERRUPT THIS MESSAGE
Group exhibition
MACLA, San Jose, CA, USA, 2018
+ info

*INDIGNADAS*/*DANGEROUS ART*
Cluster exhibitions
Curator: Svetlana Reingold
Haifa Museum of Art, Haifa, Israel 2017
+ info

*LA CARA OCULTA DE LA LUNA*
*Arte Alternativo del Madrid de los 90*
Exposición colectiva
Curador: Tomás Riuz-Rivas
CentroCentro, Madrid 2017
+ info

*MUJERES TRABAJANDO POR LA IGUALDAD Y COMPLETA HUMANIDAD DE HOMBRES Y MUJERES*
Curadores: Mario Acha y María Rodríguez
Galería, Centro Cultural, Universidad de Lima, Perú 2016
+ info

*ENTRE LA CÁMARA LÚCIDA Y EL FAX: RESIGNIFICANCIAS DEL DIBUJO*
Exposición colectiva
Curador: Carlo Trivelli
Galería ICPNA de MIraflores, Lima 2016

Public Space

*CIUDADANXS CREATIVXS*
Muestra colectiva *SUPERGRÁFICO 24*
Curadores: Un Mundo Feliz (Sonia Díaz y Gabriel Martínez)
Escuela pública de arte y diseño de la Comunidad de Madrid ARTEDIEZ, Madrid 2024
+ info

[M]UMoCA, extra-mural program. Madrid 2020
Photo Claudia Alva
+ info

INDIGNADAS LATIN AMERICA
Galería Abierta, Municipalidad de Miraflores, Lima, Perú, 2018

MUJERES SIN FRONTERAS
Federación Andalucía ACOGE – Melilla, Spain, March 8th, 2018