Another History
Beyond the icon, imagining at last the desires of women we thought we knew.
Some women have lived for centuries under our gaze.
Venus, Maja, Madame X… Their faces, bodies and poses have become part of our collective memory. But what did they feel behind the images we know?
What did Venus desire, beyond the desire she inspired? What did Maja feel in a body offered up to the gaze? Who was Madame X beyond the elegance, the pose and the scandal?
Beyond their depictions, I imagine women alive with sensations, fantasies and desires of their own.
The octopus unsettles the surface of the image, opening a passage towards what lies beneath.
Desire is no longer only what the viewer projects onto her. It becomes her own.
The familiar image slips into a more dreamlike, intimate realm of play, pleasure and fantasy.
Art history encounters another possible history.
