Menos Pausa

"Menos Pausa" is an essay composed of images where I seek to recognize myself, physically and metaphorically, after 5 years of living with menopause. In this process of natural transformation, with physical and psychological ups and downs, the notion of personal and social disappearance has been striking/dominant. On the one hand, it is as if what I understood as “identity” was falling apart: I became unaware of certain aspects of my body and my behavior; on the other hand, that same body now seems invisible to the eyes of others. With this work, I propose to break the public silence on this topic, using my voice - which also represents so many other women - to make it visible and to propose a new approach to the subject.

"Menos Pausa" is an essay composed of images where I seek to recognize myself, physically and metaphorically, after 5 years of living with menopause. In this process of natural transformation, with physical and psychological ups and downs, the notion of disappearance, both personal and social, has been striking/dominant. On the one hand, it is as if what I understood as “identity” was falling apart: I became unaware of certain aspects of my body and my behavior; on the other hand, that same body now seems invisible to the eyes of others.

Menopause unfortunately still carries many taboos resulting from a patriarchal perspective on the female body, considered a territory to be explored to fulfill specific social functions, especially reproductive functions. Hence the social devaluation of women “now incapable of generating new lives”. This view, combined with ageism, culminates in the idea, dominant in the 20th century, that menopause would be "the death of women". And, in a society that values ​​the consumerist euphoria of eternal youth, death is a subject commonly avoided – as much as menopause.

With this work, I propose to break the public silence on this topic, using my own voice - which also represents that of so many other women - to make it visible, humanize and propose an approach to the subject. I point out, in a subtle and poetic way, the invisibility that society imposes on us daily, as well as the feelings of uncertainty and loss that also manifest themselves intimately. But I also gently point to the new textures of our bodies, to a subtle sensuality that, yes, still exists, to a possible tranquility.

The essay is primarily composed of photographic images, and is accompanied by videos, watercolors, engravings and objects. The images share a subjective point of view where I compose frames that highlight voids. I explore both textures, which allude to the skin, and blurs, which emphasize the feeling of disappearance. Using the contrast between light and dark, vibrant and soft images, I make reference to the various dualities of the menopause process, while the closed shots refer to the intimate nature of the project. The watercolors, engravings and objects seek to give materiality to the organic necessarily involved in the subject