Work

Pilar Albarracín’s work is set in the context of Seville in 1992, the year of the Universal Exposition, which gave the Andalusian city great prominence. In the action, the artist situates herself in different public spaces as if she were dead, bloodied, directly questioning those who look on in order to question their passive role in the face of a scene of evident violence.

The 1990s were also the years of the AIDS crisis, a taboo that led to millions of deaths and a strong social prejudice against certain groups. This early work by Albarracín anticipates by more than a decade the approval of the Organic Law on Comprehensive Protection Measures against Gender Violence (2004). The work makes visible a violence suffered until then in silence by women.

Five years later, in 1997, Ana Orantes was murdered by her ex-husband after denouncing on television the violence and threats she suffered. Works such as Albarracín’s brought to light a reality that had been hidden and silenced in the social debate.