Power structures

The CERRO RICO mountain in Potosi was one of the largest silver mines in the world. During the 16th and 17th centuries, Potosi silver was one of the main sources of wealth for the Spanish empire and, through international trade, a source of wealth for all of Europe.
The CERRO RICO mountain gradually became the Virgin Mary in the religious paintings of the colonized indigenous people: the territory tells its story through her body, on her body. The clothes, veils, fabrics, petticoats, etc. of the Virgin Mary become the body of the mountain.
It was also during this period that the witch hunt and the disciplining of women's bodies were born.
Sarah Ahmed, in her book Vivir una vida feminista, talks about power structures that suffocate us, prevent us from breathing. I asked myself how we could make a power structure visible.
From the 15th century onwards, structures to support the body and clothing appear in women's fashion: the farthingale, the basquine, the corset, the pannier, the crinoline, etc.
These are power structures: they discipline bodies, sometimes suffocate them, so that they submit to the new economic regime where gender and sexuality are well regulated.
The power structures that I created are invaded: by more ecological materials (raw earth or wicker), by materials that recall colonial history (tobacco leaves) or by elements that recall the multiple femininities that exist today in Latin America.
Thus these structures are no longer inevitable but are subject to change.