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Ernesto Artillo's show in the Palacio Episcopal.
Women fly high at the city's                      great night of culture

Women fly high at the city's great night of culture

Women were at the centre of the most important events at the Noche en Blanco, which saw Malaga's streets and museums teeming with people

REGINA SOTORRÍO

Friday, 18 May 2018, 09:50

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In the Plaza de la Marina, five women on stilts pay tribute to those who fought to be themselves. Almost at the same time, in the Episcopal Palace, a pregnant woman wearing a suit calls for the end of the patriarchy. Meanwhile, a hundred female eyes watch over Calle Larios from above. Women were the driving force behind many of the events that took place as part of the Noche en Blanco, a night of culture in the city of Malaga last Saturday. They were accompanied by an uninvited guest, the wind, which meant that many events had to be moved to alternative venues.

Up to 10,000 guides detailing the official programme were given out within the first half an hour of the event starting. Tourists, local people and bachelor parties, as usual, mingled in the streets of the historic centre. We've come with three busloads from Algarrobo, said Amparo Melgare as she waited to get into the Carmen Thyssen museum, free of charge like all of the cultural attractions last Saturday.

This year's Noche en Blanco, an expression which means staying awake all night, provided plenty of reasons for doing just that, but this year's fun was also accompanied by more serious messages.

Calls were made for equality, recognition of the role of women in the arts and tributes to the 'Muses and Women Creators' (the theme of this year's edition) in history. To make women more visible and the protagonists of cultural events is very good, said 23-year-old Cristina González.

The company Maduixa opened the performances in the Plaza de la Marina with an award-winning show, Mulïer. Five dancers gave a lesson in strength, coordination and balance on stilts, pushing their bodies to the limit.

Next it was Emma Luna's turn to surprise the crowds in the Plaza de la Marina as her aerial acrobatics won rounds of applause.

Perhaps the show that had the greatest impact was that of Ernesto Artillo in the Palacio Episcopal. The same venue that earlier that week had vetoed two works of an exhibition (one of which was an explicit nude), was now filled with men and women posed on pedestals as living mannequins, wearing costumes on which the artist has painted breasts and genitals. There were younger and older models, of different races and even an eight-month pregnant woman. The show and its background music was described as powerful, unusual and different by a Romanian tourist couple in the city.

It's shocking, but positive. I put myself in their shoes, what will they think of us looking at them? It's the first time I've seen something like that, said Reme Ruiz of the display.

At the end of the room, a clitoris made of flowers was on display; proof, according to sources from the Episcopal, that in the diocese there is no censorship.

Female revolution

With this piece Artillo takes one of the emblems of patriarchy and transforms it into a symbol of the feminine revolution. The costumes will be auctioned this Friday, 18 May, at catawiki.com to raise funds for women's associations. Ernesto Artillo had also left his mark on Calle Larios, where his photos of the eyes of women looked down over the crowds in the main street.

Next to the façade of the Pompidou, students from the School of Architecture built The Lady of Steel, a 40-metre-long pavilion to represent the duality of women: the strength and robustness of the scaffolding and the fragility and sensitivity of the tulle fabrics.

The event as a whole was a great success both for advancing gender issues and increasing tourist interest in Malaga. As well as the street entertainment, the free admission to the main museums was a major attraction. In the first two hours 800 people had visited the Carmen Thyssen museum, 1,500 had walked around the Malaga Museum and a further 1,300 had been in the Pompidou.

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