Brazil’s 33-metre vagina sculpture sparks conservative outrage

The sculpture sparked a clash between Bolsonaro-supporting right and leftwing creatives.
Artist Juliana Notari installed the artwork, entitled Diva, in rural art park in Pernambuco, 
Juliana Notari

A vagina sculpture installed to provoke debate over the “problematisation of gender” has sparked backlash in Brazil and divided the country.

The handmade artwork, which took 11 months to build, was showcased by visual artist Juliana Notari on Saturday at a rural park in Pernambuco, one of Brazil’s most culturally vibrant states.

In a Facebook post, Notari said the scarlet hillside vulva, titled Diva, was intended to “question the relationship between nature and culture in our phallocentric and anthropocentric western society” and provoke debate over the “problematisation of gender”.

“Nowadays these issues have become increasingly urgent,” the artist added in what appeared partly to be a reference to the increasingly intolerant climate in Jair Bolsonaro’s Brazil."

But the post ignited fury among  supporters of president Jair Bolsonaro.

Since taking office in 2019, Bolsonaro has repeatedly been critical of culture, portraying artists – many of whom oppose his government – as decadent spongers who milk public funds to peddle communist propaganda. 

A succession of renowned artists died last year, many from Covid-19, and Bolsonaro responded with silence.

However it united those in the creative sector including celebrated trans cartoonist Laerte Coutinho.

Coutinho wrote in a tweet that “there’s a lot to think about in this work.”

Kleber Mendonça Filho, a film director from Pernambuco, praised the artist and tweeted: “The reactions to your work are a mirror [of society], a success."

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