Aleta Valente | Overexposure

In an exercise of exploring the stereotypes associated with the representation of women body, Aleta Valente uses ambiguous strategies in her work, often reiterating the body score of advertising positions that we have all been exposed from an early age - whether by street advertising, magazine covers or on tv - and by which we mark the relationship with our body in the world. The artist exposes points of tension from a collective imagination, producing improvised images that flirt with the banal. With a potent and ironic reflection on the image circulation regime in which we live, Aleta's body of work raises issues such as sexual freedom, violence, unequal class dynamics and the illegality of abortion. Through a peculiar aesthetic production Valente brings out memories and historical facts in search of rubbing old social roles. In Barbara, Valente recreates the scene of the imprisoned woman who gave birth to her baby locked in a solitary confinement in the Bangu Penitentiary Complex Prison. The image shows the umbilical cord, the baby in the mother's arms and the non-autonomy of the women reproductive capacity. In Quentinha photo, which is part of the Domestic series, the artist rests on her pussy an aluminum plate filled with food and sarcastically mimesises the standard image of mainstream representation of female bodies. This is also what happens with the selfie photo entitled Economy, where several coins cover her chest, bringing a relationship between body and consumption, and where daily battles are fought. The existence of noise and counter-information articulated by ex_miss_febem 1, 2 and/or 3 in her posts on the social networks is an action of resistance as the online means of circulation and the exchange of information increasingly promote a gulf between real and virtual, and a feeling of having to program or be programmed. With the phone in hand, with a cheap tripod or using a “selfie stick” Aleta uses handy tools to develop the multi-roles of herself being a producer, a publisher and a distributor of her own production.

Bia Martins and ex_miss_febem3, 2019