Giant vulva statue fuels gender debate in Brazil

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SAO PAULO, Jan 6, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – An enormous bright-red vagina sculpture
on a mountain in northeast Brazil is intended to inspire intercourse — not
the sexual kind but rather a dialogue on gender issues, particularly poignant
under the conservative government of President Jair Bolsonaro.

Artist Juliana Notari created the 33-meter (108-foot) vulva, titled
“Diva,” with the help of more than 20 people, who excavated a rural sugarcane
field in Pernambuco state to make a crevice which she says also resembles “a
wound.”

“In ‘Diva’ I use art to engage with questions that refer to gender issues
from a female perspective,” Notari said on Facebook.

The six-meter deep, cement-lined excavation took nearly 11 months to
complete, but touches on issues “that are becoming more and more urgent,”
Notari said.

Brazil is undergoing a wave of ultra-conservatism which swept Bolsonaro to
power in 2019 and has created polarized discussion on gender issues,
including on hot button topics such as abortion.

Since 2003, Notari has been “working with the female anatomy and seeks to
provoke discussions around sexual taboos imposed on women,” official material
on the sculpture said.

“It’s also a wound, too,” Notari said of the sculpture.

The work has come under ridicule and garnered criticism, with one Facebook
user posting that “if it was 15 minutes of fame she wanted, she got it,”
while others have applauded the artist’s ability to create space for
reflection.