Mónica Mayer and Maris Bustamante, 2008
Polvo de Gallina Negra
Mónica Mayer and Maris Bustamante

¡MADRES! Madre por un día

In 1983, Maris Bustamante and Mónica Mayer formed the first feminist art collective in Mexico, Polvo de Gallina Negra (Black Hen Powder), the name of a “remedy against the evil eye, which we felt we needed given that we were women, women artists, and even worse, feminist artists.” Their actions combined radical social criticism with extravagant doses of humour. For instance, the group’s name was used for feminist incantations, such as “Black Hen Powder – to protect us from the patriarchal magic which makes women disappear”. For the project "¡MADRES!", which was a long-term social intervention on motherhood, their first action was to become pregnant. And, indeed, Mayer and Bustamante each gave birth to a girl three months apart. Other "¡MADRES!" performances included inviting 10 prominent men in Mexico to be "Mother for a Day", a competition in which people wrote letters to their mothers “with everything you ever wanted to tell her but didn’t dare”, and performance interventions during protests. According to Bustamante, “Mexico is still an adverse country for women. [...] The deep class struggle we live, the racial prejudice and the oligarchic values create a social fabric where women are excluded from active roles and attacked directly simply because they are women.”

Polvo de Gallina Negra (Mónica Mayer and Maris Bustamante) persuaded the popular news anchor Guillermo Ochoa to dress up as a pregnant woman and be a Mother for a Day in a television show, which was later converted into a video and presented in art museums. During the show, Ochoa and Polvo de Gallina Negra discuss motherhood and female archetypes.

TV performance: 1987, television show, canal 2 de Televisa Mexico

Courtesy Maris Bustamante & Mónica Mayer

Document media
Video, colour, sound, 17:28 min; photographs

Issue date
1987

Relations
Maris Bustamante (BUS 1),
Maris Bustamante (BUS 2)
Mónica Mayer (MAY 1)
Mónica Mayer (MAY 2)


Tags
laughter/humorous, mass media, maternity, patriarchy, trash

selected tag:
maternity


A
Ebtisam Abdulaziz
Marina Abramović
Helena Almeida
Eleanor Antin
Arahmaiani
Malin Arnell
Oreet Ashery
Augusta Atla
Margarita Azurdia
B
Antonia Baehr
Maja Bajević
Anne Bean
Anat Ben-David
Renate Bertlmann
Pauline Boudry & Renate Lorenz
Nisrine Boukhari
Marijs Boulogne
Tania Bruguera
Nancy Buchanan
Maris Bustamante
C
Cabello / Carceller
Shirley Cameron/ Monica Ross/ Evelyn Silver
Graciela Carnevale
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha
Ève Gabriel Chabanon
Helen Chadwick
Chicks on Speed
Lygia Clark
Paul Clarke
Mary Coble
Colette
Cooltūristės
Corpus Deleicti
Nieves Correa
Laura Cottingham
Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen
D
Katrina Daschner
Vlasta Delimar
Carola Dertnig
Teresa María Díaz Nerio
Disband
Ines Doujak
Orshi Drozdik
Yingmei Duan
Kirsten Dufour
Fabienne Dumont
E
Silvia Eiblmayr
Diamela Eltit
Rose English
VALIE EXPORT
F
F.F.F.F.
Factory of Found Clothes
Esther Ferrer
Les filles Föllen
Rose Finn-Kelcey
Angelika Fojtuch
Simone Forti
Coco Fusco
G
(e.) Twin Gabriel
Regina José Galindo
Anna Bella Geiger
Rimma Gerlovina and Valeriy Gerlovin
Patrycja German
Ghazel
Kate Gilmore
Trine Mee Sook Gleerup
H
Mona Hatoum
Lynn Hershman
High Heel Sisters
María Teresa Hincapié
Nan Hoover
I
Icelandic Love Corporation - Gjörningaklúbburinn
Sanja Iveković
J
Elżbieta Jabłońska
Françoise Janicot
Joan Jonas
Anne Jud
Birgit Jürgenssen
Kirsten Justesen
K
Kanonklubben
Line Skywalker Karlström
Tina Keane
Klonaris / Thomadaki
Bettina Knaup & Beatrice Ellen Stammer
Jakob Lena Knebl
Verica Kovacevska
Elena Kovylina
Katarzyna Kozyra
Christina Kubisch
Kvinder på Værtshus (Women down the pub)
Verena Kyselka
L
Nicola L
Latifa Laâbissi
Leslie Labowitz
Leslie Labowitz & Suzanne Lacy
Suzanne Lacy
Katalin Ladik
Sigalit Landau
Klara Lidén
Kalup Linzy
Natalia LL
Léa Lublin
M
Jumana Manna
Manon
MaraM
María Evelia Marmolejo
Muda Mathis
Dóra Maurer
Mónica Mayer
Ana Mendieta
Marta Minujín
Fina Miralles
Molly and me
Linda Montano
Charlotte Moorman
Teresa Murak
Sands Murray-Wassink
MwangiHutter
N
Narcissister
Rabbya Naseer & Hurmat Ul Ain
Senga Nengudi
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O
Lorraine O'Grady
Itziar Okariz
Yoko Ono
ORLAN
Tanja Ostojić
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Funda Özgünaydin
Hannah O’Shea
P
Gina Pane
Letícia Parente
Ewa Partum
Bojana Pejić
Jillian Peña
Performance Saga
Sanja Iveković & Performance Saga
Friederike Pezold
Howardena Pindell
Adrian Piper
Mariuccia Pisani
Polvo de Gallina Negra
Pussy Riot
R
Yvonne Rainer
Eglė Rakauskaitė
Laurence Rassel
Chris Regn
Jytte Rex
Àngels Ribé
La Ribot
Angelika Richter
Jesusa Rodríguez / Liliana Felipe
Ulrike Rosenbach
Martha Rosler
Boryana Rossa
María Ruido
S
Raeda Saadeh
Estíbaliz Sábada
Andrea Saemann
Zorka Ságlová
Les Salonnières and Dr. Soley
Christine Schlegel
Cornelia Schleime
Carolee Schneemann
Rebecca Schneider
Schwarze Schokolade
Stefanie Seibold
Stefanie Seibold & Teresa María Díaz Nerio
Miriam Sharon
Bonnie Ora Sherk
Barbara T. Smith
Cornelia Sollfrank
Antonieta Sosa
Spiderwoman Theater
Annie M. Sprinkle
Sandra Sterle
Gabriele Stötzer
Annika Ström
Melati Suryodarmo
Anna Szwajgier/ Zorka Wollny
T
Jinoos Taghizadeh
Milica Tomić
Mare Tralla
Teresa Tyszkiewicz
U
Mierle Laderman Ukeles
V
Valie Export Society
Cecilia Vicuña
W
The Waitresses
Faith Wilding
Hannah Wilke
Martha Wilson
Julita Wójcik
Y
Nil Yalter
Yeni & Nan