Until 11th May, 2022, the exhibition ELÁS BRUXAS will be available at Técnico – Taguspark Campus, the exhibition “ELÁS.BRUXAS” of Rodrigo Romera and Fernanda Victorello.
The exhibition was inaugurated as part of the celebration of the International Day of Girls’ at Técnico, on the 28th April, comprising eleven artistic pieces that highlight “revolutionary women who marked their time and left a great legacy for humanity”.
Marie Curie, a scientist who conducted pioneering research into radioactivity; Katherine Johnson, scientist with major contributions to US aeronautics and space exploration; Ada Lovelace, a scientist in the field of mathematics who became known for having written the first algorithm to be processed by a machine, are some names and faces that artists Rodrigo Romera and Fernanda Victorello bring in the collection of artistic paintings “ElÁs.Bruxas”.
Although the interpretation of art is a subjective element, on the part of the authors, the motivation and the message they want to convey are quite objective: women have the capacity to be and contribute in the areas of STEM.
“We want to convey the idea, especially to the girls who are in less representative numbers in these areas, that they should continue to pursue what they believe in, just like everyone else in this exhibition did. They became big names in what they did because they persisted”, emphasizes Fernanda Victorello.
Associated with this message is the issue of freedom linked to the carnation revolution: “Most works have a carnation attached. It is a subliminal message, because there is the issue of freedom which is fundamental and, at the same time, freedom is also associated with diversity”, adds Rodrigo Romera.
To compose the works, the artists, both of Brazilian nationality, resorted to various techniques, ranging from graphite, pens, digital illustration, digital engraving and analog techniques with graphite. The mixture of elements is also in the very peculiar name, “ElÁs.Bruxas”.
Fernanda Victorello begins by spelling the “ELÁS” to explain the essence of the name: “the Ás is a term that applies to someone who is a specialist in something, it is typical of the aeronautics area, especially fighter pilots, combat pilots, who are recognized for their deeds are called an Ás. We decided to explore, because article A also refers to the issue of the feminine”, to “ÁS” the artists added the “EL” that resulted in ELÁS, that is, the revolutionary women honored in the exhibition.
But the “Bruxas”, emerged, explains Rodrigo Romera “because of the idea that women bewitched men, so they were treated as sinners and many were condemned for it.” Fernanda adds “and even healers that medicavam communities with natural herbs were believed to be witches because they have knowledge that other people did not, so many women were burned alive.”
This is an initiative integrated in the “Living Culture @Técnico Tagus” program.
