The Maternal Turn: Images of the Reproductive Body in Latin American Contemporary Art

Descripción del proyecto

Resistencia artística: maternidad, cuidados y poder estatal

Entre finales de los años setenta y noventa del siglo pasado, los regímenes autoritarios latinoamericanos y las políticas reproductivas transformaron el cuerpo materno en un ámbito de control estatal. Con el apoyo de las Acciones Marie Skłodowska-Curie, el proyecto MATRICA investigará cómo los artistas se resistieron a estas presiones utilizando imágenes distópicas y fragmentadas para cuestionar la maternidad idealizada. A través de la investigación de archivos y entrevistas, el proyecto trazará un mapa de la iconografía materna y sus vínculos con los derechos reproductivos y las economías del cuidado. Entre los objetivos clave se incluyen la elaboración de una monografía académica y la organización de talleres internacionales. Al abordar representaciones poco exploradas, MATRICA podría colmar lagunas en la historia del arte mundial, fortalecer los lazos entre Europa y América Latina y fomentar debates sobre la igualdad de género y la justicia reproductiva, en consonancia con el programa Horizonte Europa.

Objetivo

This project investigates how the maternal body became a contested and politicised subject in Latin American art between the late 1970s and the 1990s. During this period, authoritarian regimes, reproductive policies, and growing feminist movements turned maternity into a terrain of both state control and cultural resistance. Through case studies from Mexico, Argentina, Peru, and beyond, the project analyses how artists challenged idealised notions of motherhood by deploying dystopian, abject, and fragmented representations.
The objectives are threefold: to map the production and circulation of maternal imagery; to examine how these images mobilised affective registers of horror, monstrosity, and abjection; and to situate them within broader political and social frameworks, including reproductive rights, care economies, and authoritarian control. These goals will be achieved through archival research, semi-structured interviews with artists and scholars, and close visual and critical analysis.
The fellowship combines training in feminist and decolonial methodologies at the University of Buenos Aires with mentoring in transnational art history and dissemination at Sapienza University of Rome. The outcomes include a scholarly monograph, peer-reviewed articles, an international workshop, and public engagement activities across Latin America and Europe.
By addressing the underexplored representation of maternity in Latin American art, the project fills a major gap in global art history, strengthens academic and cultural links between Europe and Latin America, and contributes to urgent societal debates on reproductive justice, gender equality, and cultural memory—objectives that directly support the Horizon Europe Work Programme on research excellence, inclusion, and societal impact.