[M]UMoCA, programa extramuros. Madrid 2020. Foto Claudia Alva
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)
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 on 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 into digital illustrations, 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 participacién 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 basados en 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.
FEMINIST MOVEMENTS
Stop violence against women and girls
Say her name: Mahsa Amini
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. Authorities have attributed Amini’s death to underlying health conditions, but her family and protesters across Iran and across the world, believe she was beaten and tortured. I also believe that. Digital drawing inspired on photo by Anadolu Agency.
Vivas Nos Queremos
8M, Buenos Aires 2018. Digital drawing based on photo by Vale Dranovsky. Poderosas project, organized by M.A.f.I.A.
No + Feminicidios
300 mujeres protestan contra la ola de feminicidios. Estado de México, 2016.
Día de Muertos
Sex workers remember their murdered fellows in the Day of the Dead. Mexico City, November 2, 2011.
La Policía No Me Cuida, Me Cuidan Mis Amigas
The police don’t take care of me, my girl friends take care of me is one of the slogan of mass protest that explodes in Mexico in 2019, 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.
Protesta contra el juicio de la La Manada
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.
It’s not abuse it’s rape
La Manada rape case protest. Malaga, Spain 2018
I believe you
La Manada rape case protest. Spain, 2018. Digital drawing based on a photo by Ivan Alvarado/Reuters.
Pro-Choice
Pro-choice movement is called also the abortion rights movement. It is largely based on the belief, that woman should be able to decide what they want to do with their bodies.
Today, only 24 countries out of 195 prohibit abortion, representing just 5% of women of reproductive age globally. In 2022 the U.S. joined the short list of countries that are increasing abortion restrictions when the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion, reversing Roe v. Wade. Abortion will not automatically become illegal in the US – but individual states will now be allowed to decide if and how to allow abortions. Nepal, Ireland and Argentina are examples of three countries that recently adopted more liberal abortion laws. One of the most powerfull pro-choice movements of the last years has been Marea Verde (Green Wave) from Argentina, which 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.
Bans Off Our Bodies
Demonstrator Sonia Glenn attend the women’s march calling for abortion rights. Washington D.C., U.S. July 2022. Digital drawing based on photo by Xinhua/Liu Jie.
Pro-choice activist holds a coat hanger, historically used for self-induced abortion, taht reads «Never Again» in front the Supreme Court in Washington D.C. January 22, 2015.
Rich woman abort, the poor die
Marea Verde rally, Buenos Aires, Argentina 2018. Digital drawing based on photo by Natacha Pisarenko/Associated Press.
Let It Be Law!
Pro-choice rally. Buenos Aires, Argentina 2018
My Body, My Choice
Protest on Brussels in October 2016 against a proposed ban on abortions in Poland. Digital drawing based on Photo by Zuma Wire.
Aborto Legal
National Campaign for the Right to Legal, Safe and Free Abortion rally. Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2018. Digital drawing based on photo by M.A.f.I.A. (Argentinian Movement of Independent Photographers Self-convocated).
SlutWalk
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, consumption of alcohol, or their sexual history. Canadian students Heather arvis 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”. The movement also reclaims the derogatory term “slut” to take back the word and reduce its power.
SlutWalk protest London, U.K. 2012
Digital drawing based on photo by Justin Tallis/AFP
SlutWalk protest. Brazil 2013
SlutWalk protest. Johannesburg,
South Africa 2011
SlutWalk protest against feminicide and racism. Recife, Brazil 2017
Alfombra Roja
Alfombra Roja is 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.
Alfombra Roja
Activists from Alfombra Roja. Lima, Perú 2013. Digital drawing based on photo by Paolo Aguilar.
I want my uterus free
Activist Parwa Oblitas from Alfombra Roja. Lima, Peru 2014.
Me Too
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 hadbeen 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.”
Me Too, Seul
Me too movement march. March 8, 2018, Seul, South Korea. Digital drawing based on photo by Jung Yeonje/AFP.
Me Too, Los Angeles
Me Too movement founder Tarana Burke, left, take part in the MeToo march in Los Angeles, U.S. 2017.
FEMEN
Femen is a feminist activist group intended to protect women’s right. The organization became intrenationally known for organizing contraversial topless protests. Founded in Ukraine in 2010 by Anna Hustol, the groups is now based in France.
Femen activist. Brussels, Belgium 2013
Digital drawing based on photo by Olivier Hoslet/EFE.
Free Amina
Femen activist protesting in support of Amina Tyler, 2013
Femen in Cibeles
Femen activists prostesting in Cibeles Fountain against Ley Mordaza (Gag Law). Madrid 2015. This law includes fines of up 600 euros for failing to notify authoritiesabout demonstrations in public areas, even peaceful protests.
Grab Patriarchy by the balls, Femen
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 2017.
Machismo Mata, Femen
Activista de Femen en una acción de protesta para denunciar la violencia machista, coincidiendo con el Día de San Valentín. 15 de febrero de 2020, Plaza de Callao de Madrid. Imagen basada en una foto de prensa de Muddy Ignace/Shutterstock.
Ni Una Menos
Ni Una Menos (Not one [woman] less) defines itself as a «collective scream against machista violence. This feminist movement started started by a collective of Argentine female artists, journalists and academics, and has grown into «a continental alliance of feminist forces». The movement regularly holds protests against femicides, but has also touched on topics such as gender roles, sexual harassment, gender pay gap, sexual objectification, legality of abortion, sex workers’ rights and transgender rights.
Ni una Menos Perú
Primera marcha de Ni Una Menos Perú. 2016
I scream for the one who can’t. Ni Una Menos
demonstration. Santiago de Chile 2016
PussyHat project
The Pussyhat project was created in 2017 by Krista Suh and Jayna Zweiman in order to offer a pattern to make a hat, available for free in their website. Its aim was to provide the people of the Women’s March a means to make a unique collective visual statement which help activists be better heard.
Women’s March 2017
Digital drawing based on photo by Meg Kelly/NPR
Nasty Woman
«Nasty Woman” es una frase que utilizó Donald Trump en su campaña presidencial en 2016, para referirse a su oponente Hillary Clinton. La expresión se convirtió en un llamamiento viral para algunas mujeres votantes y llegó a ser reconocida como un grito de guerra por los derechos de las mujeres en los medios de comunicación.
La camiseta con la expresión “Nasty Woman” fue diseñada por Shrill Society para su venta en online. La mitad de las ganancias se destinaron a financiar Planned Parenthood, una organización sin fines de lucro que brinda atención de salud reproductiva en los Estados Unidos y en todo el mundo.
March 8 and Women’s Strike
International Women’s Day is a global holiday celebrated annually on March 8 to commemorate the cultural, political, and socioeconomic achievements of women. It is also a focal point in the women’s rights movement, bringing attention to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against women.
The International Women’s Strike, also known as Paro Internacional de Mujeres, was a global movement coordinated across over 50 countries and coinciding with International Women’s Day, on 8 March 2017 and 2018. The movement was created in October 2016 as a response to the current social, legal, political, moral and verbal violence suffered by contemporary women.
8M, El Salvador 2017
La revolución será feminista
Buenos Aires 2018. Digital drawing based on photo by Natacha Pisarenko
Occupy Wall Street
OWS was a protest movement against economic inequality that began on 2011 in NYC’s Wall Street financial district in USA
Black Lives Matter
BLM was formed in 2013 in USA 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.
«I can’t breathe» is a slogan associated with this movement. The phrase originates from the last words of Eric Garner, an unarmed man who was killed in 2014 after being put in a chokehold by a New York City Police Officer. A number of other Black Americans, have said the same phrase prior to dying during similar law-enforcement encounters.
Rally to protest the death of George Floyd, an unarmed African American man who pleaded that he couldn’t breathe while he was held down with a knee by the police officer Derek Chauvin during 8 minutes and 42 seconds of agony. Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. May 2020
Tess Asplund
An Afro-Swedish social activist, stepped out in front of 300 neo-Nazis marching through the City of Borlange, Sweden, and faced its leaders with her fist in the air. May 1, 2016.
Tess Aplund
Digital drawing inspired on photo by David Lagerlöf
Dream Defenders
Dream Defenders is an organization directed by Black & Brown people in USA, who confront systematic inequality by building collective power.
Don’t Shoot
Protest against the death of Mike Brown, shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, USA. 2014.
War Conflicts
Stop Putin’s War
Manifestations aroiund the world to protest against Russia-Ukraine war, 2022
Putin Hands Off Ukraine!
A woman holds a placard reading «Putin, hands off Ukraine» depicting a collage of Vladimir Putin and Josef Stalin during a demostration against the attendences of Russian militar in Crimea on Match 8, 2014 at the Venceslas Square in Prague.
Digital drawing based on press photo by Michal Cizek/AFP
Ahed Tamimi
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 sentencedto eight months in prison after agreeing to a pleabargain and released on 2018. Digital drawing based on photo by Abbas Momani/ AFP.
Terrotist Incidents
Memorial vigil for the victims of the attack by gunmen at the Garissa University College. Nairobi, Kenya, April 7, 2015.
Digital drawing inspired by a
press photo of a protest in response to satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris. January 7, 2015.
Digital drawing in response of 276 missing girls kidnapped from the Chibok Government Secondary School by Boko Haram Terrorists on April 14-15, 2014, Nigeria.
LGBTIQ+ Rights
Love
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., 2015. Digital drawing based on photo by Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post.
Kisses Against Homophobia
A lesbian couple taking part in Kisses Against Homophobia action. Day of LGBTIQ+ Dignity. Lima, Peru 2016.
Orgullo Crítico rally. Madrid, Spain 2012 Critical Pride is the name of annual protest demonstrations of LGBTIQ+ people held in Spanish cities. It is also an alternative to the original Pride parades, which they consider depoliticized and institionalized.
Exhibitions (Selection)
25.05–10.10.2022
PROGRAMA CULTURAL 2022
Dirección artística: Semíramis González
Instituto de las Mujeres, Madrid
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26.11:2021–
20.07–06.08.2022
12+10: ARTE CONTEMPORÁNEO DEL PERÚ
Curadora: Claudia Arbulú
Fundación Carlos de Ambéres, Madrid
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06.05–16.07.2022
EL MON REFLEX
Curadores: Laura Baringo y Quim Deu
Spai MercArt de Sant Just Desvern, Barcelona
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04–27.08.2022
FORTALEZAS. Curador: Santiago Martínez
Sala Concepción Arenal, Centro Cultural Los Arenales, Santander
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10.04–12.06.2022
EL ÁRBOL DE LA RABIA. Curadora: Semíramis González
Espai d’art Contemporani de Castelló, Castellón
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15.09–20.11.2022
INDIGNADAS
ADN Galería, BWG 2022, Barcelona
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08 – 09.2018
INDIGNADAS LATINOAMÉRICA
Galería Abierta, Municipalidad de Miraflores, Lima, Perú
June 01 – Aug 12.2018
WE INTERRUPT THIS MESSAGE
MACLA, San Jose, CA, USA
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11.06.2018 – 01.26.2019
SHE STARES BACK. Curator: Michele Bosak
The Fed Galleries, Kendall College of Art and Design
Grand Rapids, MI, USA
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11.11.2017 – 09.06.2018
DANGEROUS ART, Cluster exhibitions
Curators: Svetlana Reingold, Limor Alpern, Revital Silverman Grun
Haifa Museum of Art, Israel
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12.09 – 02.10.2016
MUJERES TRABAJANDO POR LA IGUALDAD Y COMPLETA HUMANIDAD DE HOMBRES Y MUJERES. Curadores: Mario Acha y María Rodríguez
Galería, Centro Cultural, Universidad de Lima
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15.06 – 10.07.2016
ENTRE LA CÁMARA LÚCIDAD AL FAX: RESIGNIFICACIÓN DEL DIBUJO. Curador: Carlo Trivelli
Galería ICPNA, Miraflores, Lima
03 – 19.09.2015
INDIGNADAS. KISS THE POLICE
Festival Cultura en la Calle, premio Arte En Valla
Concejalía de Cultura, Ayuntamiento Rivas Vaciamadrid, Madrid
Noviembre 2014
INDIGNADAS
Casa Vecina, Ciudad de México
11.09 – 14.09.2014
PitchWise Festival, CURE foundation
Mak Galllery, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
María María Acha-Kutscher 