Collection: Afrocaribbean stories - Ivonne González Núñez
Interested in one or more artworks from this collection?
Ivonne González Núñez approaches these questions through writing, photography, and performance. Her practice often draws from intimate experience so as to speak to collective realities. She stages everyday situations, at times seemingly banal, which nevertheless reveal deeply rooted forms of racism.
Childhood occupies an important place in her practice. She shows how prejudice can be transmitted from a very early age, almost effortlessly, as though it were self-evident. Gestures, words, and looks become forms of aggression, sometimes imperceptible to those who produce them, but long-lasting for those who endure them. By rendering these situations visible, the artist invites us to recognise their impact and to question their normalisation.
Another dimension of her practice involves revisiting historical images. By appropriating certain representations drawn from European art history, she reveals their underlying violence. What once appeared natural or neutral suddenly becomes disturbing. By reversing roles or shifting points of view, she opens a critical space: what do we truly see? And what have we learned not to see? González Núñez was deeply marked by a work she encountered at the Museo del Prado after arriving in Europe in the 1990s: The Miracle of Saints Cosmas and Damian (c. 1510), painted by Fernando del Rincón. The painting depicts the story of the first successful transplant, made possible through the desecration of the body of a non-consenting Ethiopian man. González Núñez transposes “the miracle of the black leg” into “the miracle of the white arm,” and suddenly the reversal becomes absurd, unthinkable and violent. Through this gesture, the artist, whose anti-racist engagement extends across both her professional and personal life, draws attention to a medical act that passes largely unnoticed at the Museo del Prado in Madrid, yet constitutes yet another violence against a Black body.
Pince à Nez (Low-cost racist practices)
Photography in collaboration with Heidi Ramírez. The artwork is accompanied by a tale from Ivonne González Núñez authorship.
Le miracle du bras blanc (pratiques Cimarronas)
Photography in collaboration with Heidi Ramírez. The artwork is accompanied by a tale from Ivonne González Núñez authorship. The performed scene has her origin in an artwork that makes part of the Museo del Prado in Spain, the « Milagros de los santos médicos Cosme y Damián ».
Please send us a message below or pick another communication option below.
Phone us
Phone: 0041 (0)79 467 84 86
Write us
E-mail: info@gallerybrulhart.ch
Find us
Rue des Vollandes 21
1207 Genève
Copyright 2021 Gallery Brulhart © All Rights Reserved
