Now you see me, now you don’t: Gender is a Toy/ Aunque no veas, aquí esToy

Transitar fue la clave de esta serie en la que realicé una intervención a Barbie® y otros muñecos como transgresión que les posibilita transitar en el género, el cuerpo y la orientación sexual y denunciando la patologización de las transexualidades y otros tránsitos identitarios.

No me mires así que siento pudor, by Manuel Antonio Velandia Mora

Now you see me, now you don’t: Gender is a Toy/ Aunque no veas, aquí esToy es una serie de fotografías de las que el autor expuso siete en la  Exposición fotográfica retrospectiva SexLand “los territorios de la sexualidad”, obra desarrollada por el fotógrafo Manuel Antonio Velandia Mora, en Alicante, España, en la sala de El Sótano CoWorking del 22 de agosto al 27 de septiembre de 2015.

In-Visibles: Natures transgressions

Photography, performance and installations exhibition

Decide-T Lesbian' Association, Gay, Bisexuals and Transsexuals of Alicante presents an installation and photography named Invisibles Exhibition, from Wednesday, March  31, in the Miguel Hernández Conference Room at the Alicante Branch of the University of Alicante, photographs and performance by Manuel Antonio Velandia Mora and doll construction and installation by Andrea Cano.

The exhibition presents compositions that resemble sexual contents, at some moments the resemblance is vague and at others it is clearly evident, right where nobody wants it, just the way it happens to those people who have decided to transition to the full existence of themselves.

The photographs and installations are of nude Ken® and Barbie® dolls that, unlike those distributed commercially, we let you see their genitals, and images of natural elements in which the spectators see strong sexual resemblances.

According to Velandia “There are people whose existence society would like to deny, and who therefore become invisible. Those who do not fit into the mold are often isolated, sometimes against their will. Sexuality though an eminently human experience is often observed in nature’s other realities and can be reflected in certain natural structures or in artificial constructions built by humans”.

These dolls belong to the world of unreality, especially the Barbies®, perverse and sexual in themselves. They belong to a world of unreality even more unreal. This body, impossible to forget, reminds us that other bodies are possible, that other bodies are normal and real: bodies in transition, bodies that desire to change, bodies of transvestites, bodies of transsexuals, bodies of intersexuals, bodies that are often denied, bodies that we refuse to see, bodies made invisible as a way of denying the existence of those beings who to us are strangers, not because they are, but because we refuse to accept diversity, uniqueness and peculiarity.

The dolls carry on a non-verbal, sensual and sexual communication; for those other women and those other men whose frustrated desires are steeped in consumerism, where perfect beauty and absolute silence allow us to meditate in a reality we refuse or are required to deny, and between the internal and the contextual.

Velandia asserts “We tend to see penises, vaginas, anuses, breasts, where there are no bodies, where the whims of nature or human constructions allow us to wander, watch and enjoy without having to reference the real people, without having to give explanations for our own existence or the existence of the beings we love or reject”.

Photographs and performance: Manuel Antonio Velandia Mora.

Doll construction and installation: Andrea Cano.

Graphic Design: Tico Morales.

Translation: Catherine Nicholls Baeza.

Decide-T: Lesbian' Gay, Transsexuals and Bisexuals Association of Alicante.

www.decidet.org

31 March on 28 April 2010

Chamber Miguel Hernández

Headquarters University of Alicante

©Barbie 2009 Mattel, Inc. All rights reserved.

Allò important no és ser home o dona, allò realmente importante és aproximar-nos al que realment voldríem arribar a ser

L’obertura de la programació anava a càrrec de Manuel Velandia Mora, amb la seua exposició fotogràfica i performance organitzades pel Col·lectiu comarcal DIVERSA-MENT. Al llarg del comentari que feia sobre la relació de fotos, Velandia contava que “els objectes són susceptibles de diferents interpretacions d’acord amb la llum, la proximitat, la relectura que en fem i dels paràmetres d’interpretació que hi usem”.

De fet, l’artista juga amb plànols de coses conegudes de tots però confusos en aproximar-nos a ells per tal de comparar-ho amb el fet transsexual: “Allò important no és ser home o dona, allò realment important és estar sent... aproximar-nos al que realment voldríem arribar a ser”, sentenciava l’artista colombià, exiliat per motius sexuals.

Núria Arnau, han destacat i conviden a tota la ciutadania -més enllà de la pròxima al món lesbià, gai, transsexual i bisexual- per conéixer la "desfavorable situació en què viu tot aquest col·lectiu en una societat que necessita encara molta informació per lliurar-se dels prejudicis en què vivim instal·lats” , declarava la republicana en l’acte d’aquesta vesprada al Centre Cívic.