Approach to the religious figure of the Virgin Mary as an ideal of femininity and its anthroponymic meaning in the context of my native town, Quatretonda (Valencia), where most women were called Mary. The artistic work consists of 20 oil paintings of women born in the early 20th century, which esthetic its based on the baroque iconography. The result of the research and the collection of paintings were presented at the Santos Juanes church, Quatretonda, as an exhibition “Where we are come from” and performance-lecture “Microcosmos of Mary”.
The performance-lecture consisted on a feminist talk in two parts: the first one was about the etymology of the name Mary; Mary in the three monosteist religions (Islam, Judaism, Cristianism); Mariology and Marian dogmas; Maria and its titles as names for women such as Dolores (Pain), Soledad (Loneliness), Angustias (Anxiety)…; “maría” as a spanish pejorative noun and synonym for woman in compounds such “marisabidilla” (mary-know-it-all), “marimacho”(mary-macho), “mariposa”(mary-posture)…; and associations of women with the color pink and the concept of left for irrationality, emotionality, nature… The second part of the lecture was dedicated to the women of Quatretonda, who were born in the beginning of the 20th century and did no have, what Virgina Wolf suggested as “A Room of One’s Own”, but poverty and illiteracy.
