February and March 2021

Teacher Yohanna M Roa

PRESENCE was a workshop held at WBX Harlem, lower level gallery space, between February and March 2021. Teacher Yohanna M Roa. In which a group of 17 women who ranged between 45 and 75 years participated.  The goal was for the participants to identify the knowledge they had produced and developed while caring for their families. Another of the goals was to resignify the social value of the work carried out by them.   At the end of the workshop, we made an exhibition to show the art installations, including a round table, to discuss the workshop’s process and results. 

 The main form of expression of the workshop was by using art as a communication tool for the skills and knowledge of the participants. We organized five working groups, according to their interests, and each group made an artistic installation. 1. Textile work, 2. Work with plants and gardening. 3. I work with food and the kitchen. 4. Work based on experiences of violence against women. In the sessions, we had dialogues with each working group. In this way. 

Textiles

Most of them have made textiles for their home. One of them was a nurse, and in dialogue with the others they decided to design an eye patch, a sling and a decorated mask,

Kitchen

Three of them felt greater satisfaction when cooking, so they created containers with egg shells and used the cardboard panels to decorate them with colors and serve the tortilla and gelatin that they had prepared.

Gardening

The participants who worked in gardening created an installation, for them, the joy of plants was something irreplaceable

violence against women.

A recurring theme during the workshop was violence, particularly domestic violence. Some of the participants had been victims or knew a woman who was. This group of women decided to bring their homes and ask friends or neighbors for disused personal objects. For them, this was a way of expressing violence against them.