Description
Mar Cuervo is a Spanish photographer. For the project, she will spend three months in an artistic residency in Iceland where she will try to make visible the issues that surround the female identity in fishing communities. She will study what can be described as “the immaterial patrimony of femininity” through a series of portraits of women in the fisheries. Gender and diversity are generated locally. Women in the fishing industries have always had a decisive role in their communities, but their work has not often been portrayed. The objectives of the project are: - to observe women from fishing communities and their qualities and strengths, - to get to know these communities and find similarities with the case study already carried out by Mar Cuervo in the coast of Galicia (Spain), - to engage with residents through photography, - to generate meaningful partnerships with other artists and cultural motivators. The result will be a photographic project with portraits of women in the fishing industry, studio visits where Mar Cuervo works, a publication and an exhibition.
Summary of project results
Spanish photographer Mar Cuervo spent three months in an artistic residency in Iceland from March until May 2014. She was invited by the Association of Icelandic Visual Artists and the objective of her project was to make visible the issues that surround the female identity in fishing communities. She studied what might be described as “the immaterial heritage of femininity” through a series of portraits of women in the fisheries. Her photographs were exhibited twice in Reykjavik and the result has been published in a book called “Hafmeyjur” (Mermaids). In addition to taking photographs, Mar Cuervo interviewed the women she met and has thus been able to incorporate the project into her PhD thesis that she is writing at the University of Complutense (Madrid) on women’s identity in male dominated professions. During her stay in Iceland, she was selected to create and moderate an open lab through the European Cultural Foundation on Women in the Art Industry that she has called “Ladies First”. The artistic network that she developed in Iceland will help her to continue to work on this theme in the future.
Summary of bilateral results