The interactive multimedia installation ‘A Menina do Rio’ draws on an analogy of memory, constructed from emotional recollections of domestic settings.
The work is based on the memories of the artist’s maternal grandmother, who, through her personal connections, has rewritten her own narrative.
The absence of the male breadwinner and the financial autonomy of women emerge as central themes of the installation, highlighted by technological devices that encourage interaction and reinforce its context.
In ‘A Menina do Rio’, old songs and fragmented accounts of a daily life linked to the river help to construct identities that evoke the feminine and refer to a melancholic past. In this way, the action embodied in the artistic process allows for the reconfiguration of emotional memories through the imagination and the reframing of the past in the present.
The installation establishes a symbolic relationship with the village of Várzea de Calde, notably through the presence of materials such as linen and memories of riverside landscapes.
The materials used in the work include an interactive sewing machine, two-dimensional works in hand-woven linen, photography, a thimble, lace and a drawing on linen.
Maíra Ortins is a multidisciplinary artist born in Recife in 1980. She now lives in Ceará and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Literature from the Federal University of Ceará (UFC) (2006); she is currently studying for a Master’s degree in Contemporary Artistic Creation at the University of Aveiro, Portugal. She has taken part in numerous art fairs and group and solo exhibitions throughout Brazil and abroad. Her work is held in the collections of major Brazilian museums and public institutions overseas.
Awards:
2024/ John Goto International Prize, ESMAD, Portugal
2020/ Acquisition Prize – Secult Ce, Fortaleza, Brazil
2018/ 69th Salão de Abril, Fortaleza, Brazil
2009/ Drawing Prize, Unifor Plástica, Fortaleza, Brazil