A psychologist, dancer, and researcher from Colombia.
Project Statement
Bleeding was the part of our cycle that we could identify and we also noticed that much work in museums and performances is done around bleeding, the taboos associated, and the activism required for equity.
It was also hard for us to move away from blood-centric thinking. However, the same attention is not given to the experience of hormonal changes and cycles across ages and genders.
The know-how or savoire-faire related to our mentrual cycle is often transmitted orally, and today, in modern times, perhaps through new books aimed at youth, or social media. We inherit mentalities anchored in contexts, actions or one could say movements associated with menstruation and related objects, and interpretation of menstrual cycles through explicit transmission as good observation of gendered actions. Even our fixation with blood and lack of knowledge regarding other phases and bodily experiences happening during the cycle is part of our heritage.
Bleeding is the moment when the private and public intersects. The blood, since is tangible and visible to ourselves and others, is a clear indicator to track our cycle and requires resources to manage and keep it private. The access to those resources also represents points of intersection between our personal experience and the larger social and political structures.
In 1969, the United Statian feminist Carol Hanish wrote the essay "The personal is political" which for the context of the feminist movement during the 60s and 70s in America meant bringing to the table the discussion about family values and domestic violence lived systematically in most of the houses. Opening this discussion broke the gap between the personal and the public to have an impact on politics and social and cultural values. Likewise, talking publicly about our cycle as a whole allows us to bring the private to the political space and help to revindicate our experience as cyclic bodies, contributing to the transformation of the social values and the way we perceive and relate to our cycle.