Dunia Barrera
Bio: Dunia Barrera- (b. Madrid, 1979) is a collage artist currently living and working in Munich, Germany. Barrera comes from a photography background, with her work having been exhibited in a solo exhibition at Photo España in 2002.
Now focused on the medium of collage, her work has been exhibited at the Carriage Barn Arts Center, at Silvermine Galleries both in New Canaan, CT, in the United States and at the Industrie Museum in Gent, Belgium, among others. She has been featured by Contemporary Collage Magazine and in the publications of Fragmented Collective and Kolaj Magazine Artist´s Tradings Cards.
Her work is in the collections of the Anthropology Museum of Madrid, the Subway System of Madrid and the Museum Cristobal Gabarron in Valladolid.
Artist Statement: From a young age, women are often conditioned to perceive themselves from the perspective of the male figure. Paintings, ads, magazines present us with women as icons to follow and at the service of the entertainment industry. We are taught to speak “man” learning their language.
So, what does it mean to look upon one? Working with men subjects from a place of admiration, I decontextualize them from their original environment and meaning to create a new message. In this approach I take the leadership role, often reserved to men, and decide where goes where and what it has to say.
Coming from the photography medium, where I worked in a five-year project on fashion identity, I came to realize that I admire men's style in the fifties and sixties. For me, this exudes power, seriousness as opposed to women images as pretty things. As a woman myself, executing as the leader in my work, by focusing on male subjects, counterparts my present, often playing a traditional role, liberating and empowering me.
