User:Kathleenat/Ana Álvarez-Errecalde

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Ana Álvarez-Errecalde (born in 1973 in Bahía Blanca) is an Argentinian artist, film-maker, and photographer. She currently lives and works in Barcelona.

Career
Álvarez-Errecalde's artistic work began when her first son was born. Her work is highly influenced by her own life experiences and in it she questions modern roles and attitudes towards motherhood and childbirth as well as exploring themes of identity, death, and migration. Now a mother of three, her family continues to inform her practice.

Álvarez-Errecalde has received many awards and recognition for her work. Most notable is her participation in exhibitions at the CCCB (Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona), and Centre d'Art Santa Mònica, as well as being awarded residencies at Hangar, Barcelona in 2008 and in Fabra i Coats in 2009. Her photograph, Symbiosis, was featured on the cover of issue 55 of Hip Mama Magazine in 2014.

The Birth of My Daughter
The Birth of My Daughter (2005) is perhaps her most important work, a self-portrait that documents the artist giving birth in her home. It is part of the Ecology series, an ongoing project in which the artist subverts the concept of the family album. Typically the family albums present a filtered and highly skewed version of reality, but Ecology is a sincere record of the moments that truly define and identify her.

“With these photos I wanted to show a maternity from my experience in which to give birth I open, I transform, I bleed, I scream and I smile. I am standing up, with the placenta still inside me, linked to my baby by the umbilical cord and I decide when to photograph the birth. I am the protagonist. I am a hero. By giving birth I take off my 'cultural' veil. My maternity is not virginal not aseptic. I am the archetype of the primal woman, the woman beast that has nothing prohibited.”

In an interview for the International Museum of Women (now the Global Fund for Women ), Álvarez-Errecalde was asked how people respond to this work, to which she answered "There are people who admire the work and appreciate my motivations for creating and sharing these self-portraits. Art history, Hollywood, the media and the advertising industry show maternities from a viewpoint which mostly corresponds to a heterosexual masculine fantasy. Everything related to the mother is portrayed as sacred, virginal and aseptic. Other people are horrified by seeing a naked woman giving birth, smiling and showing the baby, umbilical cord, placenta and blood. Some feel it is not a “sincere” image of birth because their accepted version of women birthing involves pain, being out of control and needing guidance and assistance. They feel confronted by an image that challenges their most profound beliefs. For me, experiencing birth without interference was always an incredible and powerful event. A rite of passage that is transcendental and primordial. I know that my experience is similar to that of many women and I wonder why that experience was never portrayed before and hardly ever discussed."

Cesarean, Beyond the Wound
Cesarean, Beyond the Wound is a project made in collaboration with the association El Parto es Nuestro, in which Alvarez-Errecalde photographed women with cesarean scars. The images are accompanied by a brief testimony from each woman, showing the emotional and physical implications of the operation. Around 30 of these photographs were published in the book “CESÁREA, más allá de la Herida” published by Editorial Ob Stare (2010). Although the World Health Organization recommends a cesarean rate of 10-15%; in Spain and the United States the rate is over 23%, and rises above 33% in private clinics. The book is an educational tool to raise awareness of the thousands of unnecessary cesareans performed each year. In a review for Midwifery Today, Kelly Moyer writes "This book is a visual treasure for midwives and other birth professionals who work with VBAC clients and is wonderful for those who work with both English and Spanish-speaking populations."

More Store
More Store (2008) is a performative installation in which Álvarez-Errecalde has photographed the nude body of 40 anonymous women and printed them onto stretchy bodysuits. The women come from different backgrounds, including Cameroon, Costa Rica, Brazil, The Netherlands, and Iceland, and their ages range from 18 to 75. These bodysuits hang in a boutique setting, as if they were garments in a shop, and can be worn by the gallery-goers themselves. The age, language, and location of each woman is sewn onto a label in each bodysuit, reminding the viewers that these are real people who have been transformed into items of clothing.

Canadian art historian Heidi Kellett talks about the project in her essay Skin Portraiture: Relational Embodiment and Contemporary Art, she says, "More Store establishes a feeling of trust between bodies since they have all been transformed through their epidermal vulnerability. The bodily interaction achieved by the installation forms a complex social web of relations that questions what a portrait is and what it can do. Haute couture, therefore, engenders radical relations between bodies through an activation of skin."

EYECatalunya
In November 2014 Álvarez-Errecalde was selected as a speaker for the EYECatalunya project, an initiative which selects three creators of different disciplines based in Catalonia each month to speak about their work and encourage a conversation around it. The speakers are broadcast live on the web, creating an online platform for learning and discussion. In a presentation entitled The Body's Revolution, Álvarez-Errecalde spoke about her work – how it started, how it developed, and about the motivations and driving forces behind it – as well as sharing her belief in the power of art, its ability to influence thought, provoke dialogue, and question all facets of existence.

Solo Exhibitions

 * 2013: Galerija Klovievi Dvori, Extravagant Festival, Kotejner, Zagreb, Croatia
 * 2012: Vzigalica Gallery, City of Women Festival, Ljubljana, Slovenia
 * 2011: Fundación María Forcada, Tudela de Navarra, Spain
 * 2011: Palacio de La Audiencia, Soria, Spain
 * 2010: Centro Cultural de España en Buenos Aires, Argentina
 * 2010: Galería La Normandina, Mar del Plata, Argentina
 * 2010: Encuentros Abiertos, Festival de la Luz, Bahía Blanca, Argentina
 * 2009: Art Contemporani, Vic, Spain
 * 2008: FAD, Barcelona, Spain
 * 2008: Centro Cultural Drassanes, Barcelona, Spain