PACHA MANAS
A project by Marina Alegre & Margherita Isola
Thanks the support of the Goethe Institut of São Paulo.
2020 > 2022
Pacha Manas tackles the theme of abortion and its criminalisation, a theme that permeates the reality of women and which is increasingly important to talk about here in Brazil, as in the rest of the world.
Starting from the autobiographical experiences of their respective abortions, Margherita and Marina counter the violence with which the experience of abortion is silenced and censored by meeting with comrades, women and plants, and together collectivising wounds, struggles, hopes and knowledge.
The project creates spaces for dialogue and solidarity between a diversity of women and plants, and promotes practices of resilience, healing and mutual care.
the circle constitutes the form and content of the creative process of this multi-layered, multi-handed project, which resulted in a series of itenerating circles of women, plants and embroidery, a roof garden, a publication, and a reading.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
Pacha Manas are circles of women, plants and embroidery, in which while we speak our hands sew. Textile art, in specific embroidery, allows to involve the body in the construction of the dialogue, letting words awakening from gestures. As experimenters in textiles, we understand embroidery as a collective restorative practice.
Some itinerant circles were held in different parts of São Paulo involving women met in the streets while an online circle was organized during the pandemic in collaboration with the Goethe Institut and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and thank to the partecipacion of Cristina Takua, indigenous philosopher and educator, Eliana Rodriguez, ethnobotanical researcher, Cleone Santos, Afro-Brazilera woman and founder of Mulheres da Luz, an NGO serving women in prostitution, and Andrea Alves, Afro-Brazilera dancer and choreographer and member of the Marcia das Mulheres Negras of São Paulo.
Pacha Manas is also an installation that pays homage to the victims of illegal abortions. Women who lose their lives because they are not guaranteed a fundamental right to health and autonomy over their own bodies. To not forget these women, we create a hanging garden, occupying a wall of the courtyard of the Goethe Institut, setting vulva-shaped planting bags which serve as shelter for traditional abortifacient plants, such as rute, melon of São Caetano, pennyroyal and parsley, among others.
Pacha Manas is a book that gathers texts with multiple perspectives written by several Brazilian and non-Brazilian women, including the two artists. The book, edited by Editora Funilaria, invites reflection on abortion, patriarchy, reproductive autonomy, care and traditional knowledge, among other topics.
The publication is presented as a partecipatory reading. sharing some extracts of the book, and interwoving the reading with a collective embroidery and a poetical interconnection with healing plants for women.
Besides participants are welcome to nourish the p
Reading-performance tour:
8 December 2022- Goethe Institut, São Paulo
21 December 2022 - Funarte, São Paulo
27 January 2023 - Fundación Entredos, Madrid
Pacha Manas is one of the projects hosted by the Biennial Women in the Visual Arts.
