Passagens n.1 @ Anna Bella Geiger. 1974

- GEIGER Anna Bella, Passagens n.1, 1974.

Anna Bella Geiger (1933, Brazil) lives and works in Rio de Janeiro. Her influential oeuvre is characterized by the use of language and different media, ranging from painting, drawing, photography, photoengraving and montage to (performative) video. Since the 1960s she has explored the relationship between body, space and (national) territory often extending ‘‘the language of maps and cosmological charts… the ‘geography’ of the human body. The artist has called that confluence ‘anthropomorphic cartography’.’’ (Marek Bartelik) Anna Bella Geiger is part of a generation, who experienced Brazilian dictatorship and economical hardship, which influenced her artistic language, being poetic and decisively political at the same time.

The video Passagens n.1 shows a woman (the artist) climbing stairs in repetitive acts, gradually proceeding from the internal, private staircase of a residential house to the monumental flight of stairs of a public building. While alluding to the tedious repetitive labour of (women’s) everyday chores and movements, the video also hints at a possible transgression – slowly but decisively approaching the centre of public power.