MATRICA · The Maternal Turn: Images of the Reproductive Body in Latin American Contemporary Art

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Project objective

This project investigates how the maternal body became a contested and politicised subject in Latin American art between the late 1970s and the 1990s. During this period, authoritarian regimes, reproductive policies, and growing feminist movements turned maternity into a terrain of both state control and cultural resistance. Through case studies from Mexico, Argentina, Peru, and beyond, the project analyses how artists challenged idealised notions of motherhood by deploying dystopian, abject, and fragmented representations.The objectives are threefold: to map the production and circulation of maternal imagery; to examine how these images mobilised affective registers of horror, monstrosity, and abjection; and to situate them within broader political and social frameworks, including reproductive rights, care economies, and authoritarian control. These goals will be achieved through archival research, semi-structured interviews with artists and scholars, and close visual and critical analysis.The fellowship combines training in feminist and decolonial methodologies at the University of Buenos Aires with mentoring in transnational art history and dissemination at Sapienza University of Rome. The outcomes include a scholarly monograph, peer-reviewed articles, an international workshop, and public engagement activities across Latin America and Europe.By addressing the underexplored representation of maternity in Latin American art, the project fills a major gap in global art history, strengthens academic and cultural links between Europe and Latin America, and contributes to urgent societal debates on reproductive justice, gender equality, and cultural memory—objectives that directly support the Horizon Europe Work Programme on research excellence, inclusion, and societal impact.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

• UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI ROMA LA SAPIENZA · RomaCoordinatorItaly
• UNIVERSIDAD DE BUENOS AIRES · Buenos AiresArgentina

Links

• View on CORDIS
• DOI: 10.3030/101280752