CLAUDIA CASARINO: "EVERYTHING IS BORN FROM PERSONAL AND FAMILY NARRATIVES"
Paraguayan artist Claudia Casarino will be part of the opening of the Pinta Sud | ASU 2024 art week, from August 5 to 11, 2024. In a conversation with Arte al Día, she explains her link with Paraguay, the body and clothing to tell stories that reinterpret the universe of women.
What is the place of materiality in your work? From where do you approach it?
Matter is concept. Each part of the work is selected with almost surgical premeditation. I cannot separate the materials from the discourse, the materials are the discourse as well. In my pieces there is little room for chance.
Clothing and textiles are prominent elements in your artwork. How do you think these objects can challenge or redefine traditional perceptions of the body and gender identity?
The history of dress is also the history of oppressions. Through cultural objects we can approach other ways of interpreting the past and the political reasons behind each decision/imposition of use or custom.
I find in dresses a very eloquent way to talk about violence, inequality and its consequences.
Do you seek to generate conversation and awareness about issues such as gender violence and structural oppression through your work?
Always, from day one. Although my feminism has been mutating from a very Eurocentric vision in my early training, mostly reading white and academic women authors, in recent years I have had the privilege of knowing what women from other regions of the planet think and do, from the global south, from South America and their ways of seeing and understanding us, of inscribing our narratives.
What does Paraguay mean in your production? Understanding that your work reflects on peripheries, borders and forced transits.
Everything is born from Paraguay, because everything is born from personal and family narratives. This territory where my mother was born, my grandmothers, where I was born, has traced the path of my production. But nevertheless, the work can be read, it can be accessed from other territories, because the experiences are similar.
This edition of Pinta Sud features an exhibition of your work at the Manzana de la Rivera, what challenges and opportunities did you encounter in presenting your work in such a unique environment and how do you think this influences the viewer's perception? How do you see the evolution of your work in the context of your career and previous exhibitions by presenting your work in this venue?
It has been many years since I have exhibited at the Manzana de la Rivera and this is the first time Adriana Almada is curating an exhibition of mine. I enjoyed the process very much. I usually work with limited timeframes, which for me this month has been intense, but at the same time more relaxed than in other exhibitions.
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