Exhibition : “Real Beauty”, Claudia DeMonte, USA (8-19 March 2010, Hall Segur) Organised in cooperation with the Permanent Delegation of the United States of America to UNESCO The art installation “Real Beauty” represents the culmination of 30 years of making art on issues related to women in contemporary society by the American artist, curator and gender equality activist Claudia DeMonte.

 
Having collected handmade dolls from all around the world, Ms DeMonte conceives them as powerful icons vis à vis women. “I hope the exhibition evidences the importance of these handmade figures in their ability to reveal both the private and communal expressions of women of many cultures”, she says.

The exhibition features 140 digital images of handmade dolls from around the world that celebrate women’s unique diversity. In a time when patriarchy and the forces of capitalism have created a tyranny of beauty for women based on one heartbreaking western pattern, these dolls are a welcome reminder, a celebration of the diversity and specificity of global culture which is at the heart of real beauty.