Carlota Guerrero Instagram – “Sofia Willendorf” Silicon, hair and clay (2022) @staatsgaleriestuttgart #carlotaguerrero “An apparent visitor stands serenely in a corner of the exhibition room. She has her back turned to the rest of the viewers and looks down towards a small figurine she holds with one of her hands. Titled Sofia Willendorf, the installation takes the historian and anthropologist LeRoy McDermott and Catherine Hodge’s thesis from their article Decolonizing Gender: Female Vision in the Upper Paleolithic (1996) as the starting point. In the text, the authors criticize the way the first images of human bodies, the Venus figurines, have generally been interpreted “as sex objects made from a male point of view”. Instead, they argue, they were made by women and for women as a form of self-representation. Following this, the apparent distortions of the anatomy of the figurines become apt renderings if we consider the body as seen by a woman, presumably pregnant, looking down on herself. Regardless of the veracity of the argument —which seems perfectly logical and credible— the question remains; why did it take so long to consider the logical possibility that a female point of view was involved? Sofia Willendorf gives voice to that pregnant woman in the contemporary context, where past and present archetypes are confronted under the veil of an imposed male gaze the artist tries to subvert. A certain discomfort emerges while staring at the duo, ironically separated by 30,000 years gap. Originally purchased as a sex doll manufactured in China, the contemporary visitor cheerlessly exemplifies both the prevalence and the profound influence of the patriarchy.” text and curation @marionavaldestorrella