Retratos Relatos: Ruins Park

The “Retratos Relatos” (HerStory) exhibition, by the artist Panmela Castro, addresses a severe social problem in Brazil: violence against women. Panmela has already been a victim of this type of violence herself and became a symbol of the fight for women’s rights. Because of that, she is constantly receiving messages and reports of hundreds of people. These are reports about situations of violence, abuse cases, racism, abusive relationships, loneliness and the quarantine challenges. 

“Portraits Reports” happened at the Parque das Ruínas Cultural Center, at Santa Teresa, as a part of many actions promoted by the Secretary of Policies and Promotion of Women of Rio de Janeiro. The exhibition integrates the “16 days of activism for the end of violence against women” international campaign that started on November 25th – International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women – and ended on December 10th – Humans Rights International Day. The campaign had the goals of informing women about their rights and of promoting the confrontation of domestic violence.

The Portraits Reports series started in 2019 from the many messages the artist started to receive from dozens of women from every part of the country. As an artist known for her activism, Panmela decided she would treat those stories and scars through her art.

To the artist, this series of paintings are about “dororidade”, a type of pain that emerges from racism and machismo that turns into political power to transform what is there. By telling their stories, these people are taking the pain and transforming it into encouragement to other people,  encouragement for the end of violence and oppression in its various forms. But mainly, they are reinforcing the importance of mobilization strategies for preventing and confronting violence against women, a serious problem in Brazil, where, on average, one woman is a victim of femicide every 7 hours.