The Tattooed Skeleton: Visions of Domestic Violence

The Queen Sofia National Art Museum and Center has scheduled the showing of ten videos from The Tattooed Skeleton, a project by American artist Suzanne Lacy, who this time around counts on the collaboration of the Madrid Federation of Progressive Women. The event will take place a month from now.

It’s the conclusion of Lacy’s latest multidisciplinary and multimedia project, produced for Queen Sofia to observe the International Day for the Elimination of Domestic Violence and as part of the activities to mark the date’s twentieth anniversary.

The first activity linked to this project took place on Oct. 18 at the Nouvel Building, where a working team made up of leaders and spokespersons from governmental organizations and NGOs, members of the press and from the academic field held a roundtable on domestic violence and social policies related to the topic. In the same breath, on Nov. 18, the museum’s website will stream a video on the actions conducted by a group of students attached to a workshop on domestic violence in which a number of pieces Lacy will be using in her performance are going to be created. The streaming will give voice to groups of women –usually ruled out of those groups that are socially protected from domestic violence: women in jails, lesbian gypsies, transsexuals or women suffering from mental disorders.

The artist has set out to study how the phenomenon of domestic violence in Spain is told since some activists have noticed that the issue is limited to figures while the true origin of the problem is ignored: the daily going of many men and women who take grievance in silence. Her work –chiefly consisting of installations and performances that strike people’s attention for their conceptual strength- is an expression of an activism of international scope. It hinges on genre, class and race issues.

On Nov. 25, Lacy will engage in a demonstration in Puerta del Sol in Madrid to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Domestic Violence.

Source: Queen Sofia National Art Museum and Center’s website www.museoreinasofia.es