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Arts & Communication Female Body at 8 Biennial Sea Salon
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and sculptures, as Vasari suggested when analyzing artists
like Antonio Pollaiolo (1429 – 1498). However, it is only in
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the 1960s, especially in the North American and European
artistic scene (though not disregarding the Japanese and
Latin), that the artist’s body comes to be elevated to the
status of a work of art.
As art historian Amelia Jones suggests, this is the
moment when artists start to negotiate with the personal and
the public sphere. In this way, identity aspects come into
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Figure 2. Oriana Duarte, Plus Ultra Vitória Bay, 2008. Screenshot play, partly subjective, partly collective, and the body then
seems to be the perfect means to express current questions.
activity of Plus Ultra involves video capture during the According to researchers Pam Meecham and Julie Sheldon,
artist’s rowing sessions, employing four cameras: one to the assertion that the body from the 1960s onward becomes
capture the main image (showing the artist’s back and the politically and socially inscribed in the public sphere is
surrounding landscape), two micro-cameras to capture justified by the reconfigurations about corporeality arising
footage of the boat, and one camera to document the from cultural and philosophical discourses of the time. 11
behind-the-scenes process. By sharing the subjective In the 20 century, we see the profusion of discourses
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experience through an angle that positions the audience that treat the body as a cultural object, as something
as fellow rowers, a stronger connection between the artist organic, agentive, subjective, material envelope of conscious
and the viewer is established, transforming the viewer into forms, and unconscious drives. From the 1960s, with
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an active participant in the journey. The experience of counterculture and feminism, this is even more evident
rowing, captured in this way, transcends mere observation; with a plurality of artists offering models of corporeality
it becomes an act of revealing, through accurately recorded that functions as resistance and critiques of values and
images on video. meanings. It is in this context that Oriana Duarte develops
In this aspect, Plus Ultra can be understood within the her artistic strategy around her female body.
esthetic-political framework proposed by Félix Guattari, In this sense, it is important to highlight that the
wherein it is seen as a crucial element in shaping individual tradition in the history of art reveals that women have
human experiences. This framework views art as long been seen as objects of male contemplation, and their
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inseparable from the political, social, and esthetic realms, bodies have often been translated as sexual apparatuses.
emphasizing the importance of creating new pathways and Filipa Vicente (2012) addresses this issue masterfully in
modes of expression that foster unique forms of subjectivity “A arte sem história: mulheres e cultura artística (séculos
and realities. This involves a commitment to continuous XVI–XX)” (“Art Without History: Women and Artistic
movement and creative flow. Oriana Duarte’s suggestion Culture [16th – 20 Centuries]”). The art historian,
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of sharing the immersive experience of the boat-oar- who focuses on feminist currents in her studies, asserts
landscape fusion in Vitória Bay offers the audience access that women, as objects of male observation and creation,
to alternative perspectives and ways of experiencing the are one of the most persistent typologies of artistic
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world through art. Selected for the 8 Biennial Sea Salon, representation throughout the history of Western painting.
Plus Ultra aligns with the event’s theme of “waves, bridges, She discusses the continuation of female sexualization in
and navigable interventions,” contributing to the activation contemporary art. The representation of the female body
of collective memories within the urban landscape. (nude) predominates in works from the Renaissance to
As we are discussing corporeality in the artist’s project, Modernism. In contemporary times, women continue to
it is relevant to make some remarks about the situation have to undress to enter museums. By considering those
of the body in the context of contemporary art. Since aspects and the context of the rowing clubs, it is possible to
the mid-20 century, the body has been widely used as a recognize in Oriana’s project a strategy to confront various
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central object in art. Not that it was not a consistent subject instances of misogyny through her body. Throughout her
before. The organic form, the envelope of matter, or the visits to different clubs, the prevalent male dominance is
delineation of human physical consistency has always unmistakable (Figures 3 and 4), and her narrative serves
been the focus of artistic interest. In Renaissance works, to underscore this reality even further: “It marked the first
for example, all the details and unfolding of the skin over occasion where I openly recognized the impact of gender
the musculature, veins and arteries, anatomical exercises, differentiation, the presence of sexism, as an unavoidable
appeared carefully and cautiously in paintings, engravings, influence shaping the dynamics of a particular environment

Volume 2 Issue 4 (2024) 4 doi: 10.36922/ac.3023