re - Las Iluministas & Michaela Wetherell

When a woman's life is taken, so much more is taken from her: her name, her story, her interests, her identity, her hopes and dreams. This happens not just at the moment when she is killed, but when her murder is represented in mass media, if it is represented at all.  

In the UK one woman is killed by a partner or ex-partner every three days; in Mexico, eleven women are murdered each day. In both countries, when these women are older, living in poverty, disabled, indigenous or women of colour, their murders receive little media attention and outrage. When the media does talk about femicide, women are repeatedly blamed for their own murders, with people focusing on women’s lifestyle choices instead of blaming the men who commit violence against them. 

During the pandemic, cases of domestic violence and sexual violence have increased, but punishment for aggressors has not: men continue to receive disproportionately light sentences for violence against women and femicide in the UK, and in Mexico, 97% of femicides end in impunity for the aggressor. The pandemic has also made visible that in the majority of cases, the aggressor is inside the house and not outside it. Mexican feminist art collective Las Iluministas and UK online gallery Pink-Collar Gallery are coming together to create two parallel online exhibitions, ten pieces of public art and ten documentary videos - five in Mexico, five in the UK - challenging how femicide is portrayed in the mass media, and changing the narrative on violence against women. 

We invite artists who identify as women and as feminists to re:imagine, re:name, re:create, re:think, and re:tell the real stories of the women whose lives have been taken by femicide.  

The work will be displayed online in parallel at Pink-Collar Gallery and Las Iluministas Gallery. 

Exhibition - 5th August / Exposicion - 5 de agosto