Desde la mirada: Union of wills

No one or just a few knew their names as artists when in March 8, 2012 the group Desde la Mirada was unveiled in Ecuador with an exhibition of paintings at the headquarters of the Ministry of Culture, crowded with family and friends in the audience.

Just a year ago they had started this project despite the barriers and limitations, and even very early and they participated at the Ibero-American Culture Festival in Holguín, Cuba, where they arrived with a sample of plastic and full of possible dreams.

Ghislaine Izaguirre, Ecuadorian writer, was the main protagonist of this group, which already brings together one hundred and twenty women from seventeen countries, and to which were integrated from the outset a group of friends seeking an escape to their problems, to overcome ostracism barriers they had undergone themselves and then society for the tradition.

At home in Quito, in an atmosphere that mainly reminds of a gallery for the pictures hanging from the walls and decorating her living room, some of her representatives chatted with the Andes agency on how to achieve convergence in the spirit of develop selfesteem to be reborn through art, both professional and amateur.

Ghislaine says that from her personal project many were joining interested in building spaces of freedom for their creativity and sensitivity, and today, she says, they feel "free to say this I am, this I want to convey and create to make a different World ".

"Now we say that this is our liberating activity, because the group has become a space to show what we can do and have a voice, to overcome individual needs and be the basis for a society with new criteria."

In just two years of creation as a group, they have already developed twenty activities, organized and executed by Desde la Mirada every time with more participation and recognition of cultural institutions, some of which felt that this was "a crazy project that should work with their own resources, "according to their testimony.

"Right now people have already joined as a French Russian painter, also a Swiss, and they transmit they never had the space to express before," explains Ghislaine.

She believes that there is a large percentage of female presence in public institutions in her country, but there are still obstacles within the home, as the existing level of violence. "And so the group has been important for them to be released as far as possible through art and their interaction with their members and with the circle they are surrounded".

"It is not necessary to be physical blows, they can be psychological, and they are expressed when they, because of housework, put their dreams aside, so Desde la Mirada turns to its members in a healing space through activity and recognition of artists, "she says.

At first, dhe says, they began to discuss about "mental captivity in a traditionally patriarchal society like in Ecuador," but now they propose, "to be free to educate free sons and daughters without our limitations."

As phoenix

Ana Ballesteros, a painter, born in the Ecuadorian province of Esmeraldas, began in the group almost from the very beginning, after a friendly chat, and from there the issue of women surfaced in her work.

"Every time I became more interested and I started to encourage my two daughters and I realized my personal development, because them and my husband began to value that I  could do more than just being a housewife, although I had worked for thirteen years a bank".

Her next challenge will be to make a personal exhibit, but she wants to continue painting as a hobby. She is encouraged by the fact that now her daughters have also started to paint, although they continue with their careers, but it is an "extra that has lifted their spirits."

Veronica Almeida, from Ibarra, is a writer, and joined the group a year and a half ago. She "proudly" says she has become a feminist because with her writings she speaks with the heart, so that women identify with her texts from which she tells their lives, so they become motivated or have the courage to change them.

"We defend equality and gender equity. This is very male chauvinist society, women have been bred with patriarchal methods, and we must change that. For example, many housewives have the dream of studying and traveling, but to devote to their children, spouse, or what people say, they have been limited. "

"But this group gives us the push to say enough is enough; if something hurts in your life, you are the only person who can change it, no one can hurt you without your consent, you let the bad and the good in your life."

Veronica intends to publish a book for next year telling stories that astonishes when display the stored capacity of many women in a patriarchal society and have the power to liberate, not being submissive and do not let anyone press them.

Elizabeht Pérez, who has lived in Rome, Italy, and is now based in Barcelona, Spain, in the last year has been in constant activity in Ecuador, her native country, from where she emigrated to Europe when years of the economic crisis.

But after integrated Desde la mirada doors and horizons have been opened in their own country, and she could even sing at the headquarters of the National Assembly of Ecuador, which makes her happy, because her people know of her art, and she can receive the applause and affection of her people.

"It is filling me the space. I have wanted to come back and something stops me, and now we plan to go to Cuba, which is an achievement and a goal," she says, and lists that in her case was an opportunity to be free and express her art.

Being back and joined to this group has been a way of reconciliation with her country, after she had to emigrate, as many women did against their will and inserted into another culture suffering from discrimination to work and "send money" .

The Russian Larissa Oxman, who lives in Quito, says that the group has an incredible artistic movement in several cities of the country, and several international events in Cuba, where it presented a solo exhibition last May.

"Painting, drawing, traveling, always busy, you do not feel that your life is empty. Life is difficult to achieve some goals, but through art I reach them, I live the life of my characters and paint what I might be able not to accomplish. Here I could grow, be out of the routine, and have more friends. My family is proud of me, "she says in fluent Spanish.

The group Desde la Mirada is integrated by women from seventeen countries. Argentina, Angola, Cuba, Ecuador, Bolivia, Portugal, Chile, Mexico, Colombia, Germany, Switzerland, France, Russia, USA, Spain, Venezuela and Iran

Looking to the future

Ghislaine Izaguirre states that there is an increase in the public participation in their calls, and even recognition of institutions such as the National Assembly and the House of Ecuadorian Culture.

The House of Iberoamerican Culture, in the Cuban province of Holguin, has also played an important role in the international diffusion of Desde la mirada, which, she says, has helped others to join from abroad. "Now the institutions want to have us, know what we say, what we can achieve."

Among the immediate plans are to attend the IberoAmerican Culture Festival in Cuba and another appointment in Europe as well as the international call from Manuela project of this group, to paint with a women criterion  about the life of the Quito Manuelita Sáenz, the girlfriend of Simon Bolivar, and publish the third version of the book Diarios de mujeres cazadas.

Next September 18 they will hold an expo-sale in Unión de Quito club, and there are also plans to bring exhibitions to all provinces of the country, starting in Esmeraldas, so women of all cultural levels can appreciate this artistic project, and integrate, and understand that episodes they are living are very similar, regardless how far away they live, even the solutions to these.

www.andes.info.ec/es/noticias/mirada-union-voluntades-femeninas-ecuador…