Do You Believe Me?
Artist Nieves Mingueza reworks archival images guided by a familiar statistic: one in three women experiences gender-based violence in her life.
The project plays on photography’s relationship with evidence, an element that becomes especially controversial when gender-based violence comes into play. “What do we need to “see” to be convinced of the accounts of women?” When can a photograph be considered a proof?
The surface of the images is violated by cuts, scratches, layering. The faces are erased, individuality is taken away. The photographs of women become hints to a context never unveiled, turning them into the numbers of an infamous statistic. In their mundane innocence, family archives often hide realities that the artist’s intervention drives attention to.
The exhibition “One in Three Women”, curated by Tanvi Mishra, is on view at the Église des Frères Prêcheurs in Arles, part of the program of Les Rencontres de la Photographie, until September 24.
