Javier G. Paradelo.
Santillana del Mar (EFE).- Three artistic photographs of archaeological objects from the Altamira cave -pendants, knives, assegaya or needles-, have been incorporated into the permanent exhibition of the Museum as new views towards the Paleolithic and to vindicate the visibility of women at the beginning of the story.
These are images taken by the Canarian photographer Teresa Correa, installed in a room in front of the showcases containing the archaeological materials that served as models, so that the public can establish a particular dialogue between contemporary and Paleolithic art from the perspective of gender.
It will be the artist herself who at noon this Saturday presents the works to the public and initiates a dialogue with her particular vision and the process of creation, since the photographs aim to discover beauty in archaeological objects and, at the same time, question the viewer and propose a new look full of questions.
rewrite the paleolithic
In an interview with EFE, Teresa Correa explained this Tuesday that the three images are part of the artistic project “Acaso me nombres?”, from 2017, within the first photographic exhibition on the museum’s archaeological collections and with which she tried to rewrite the story about the Paleolithic.
Under the umbrella of her artistic gaze, Correa directed her interest from material objects to people, with the motivation to question traditional discourses and claim the visibility of women throughout history.
For this reason, on that occasion, the artist exhibited her photographs torn in two halves with a flint point to represent the parity with which primitive societies lived, a gesture with which Correa wanted to reveal himself in the face of the traditional historical account, “because without a half, you cannot contemplate the whole”, he considers.
This is how he used for the photographs one of the so-called Altamira pendants, together with a deer tooth that hangs in the void and a trivia shell with several perforations, images that from now on will dialogue with their source of inspiration: the furniture art of the Patrimonio cave. of Humanity.
In her opinion, each image “claims the visibility of women at the beginning of our history, in the times of Altamira”, and at the same time claims over and over again a parity story told from gender equality.
“Asymmetric” look at the past
She has also highlighted that her photographs (the torn ones from “Acasos me nonambras?” and those now exhibited in the permanent collection) are “a symmetrical look” towards the past that “rescues women after the black light” (all of them taken in black and white) and that claims the non-separation of the feminine and masculine worlds.
In this sense, she recalled that tearing up the archaeological objects during the preparation of the sample was “a catharsis” for her that has allowed her to realize the prejudices and stereotypes that exist impregnated in the official history of humanity.
The director of Altamira, Pilar Fatás, assures that the museum’s commitment to the gender perspective “is continuous” since its opening in 2001, and continues through new proposals such as the book “Prehistory of Women”, by the professor of Prehistory Marga Sanchez Romero.
Now the presence of women in the museum’s permanent collection is reinforced with the incorporation of Correa’s works, as was done in 2022 with those of the artist Arancha Goyeneche.