The scars of beauty

In the era of selfies and Instagram (vanity, divine treasure), we see perfect, unreal faces and bodies every day, by the art and magic of photoshop. Faces without a wrinkle and smooth bodies, without cellulite or stretch marks, flood social networks, magazine covers and advertisements. But what if photoshop was used to scratch the skin of those idealized figures and bring out their imperfections? The Fundación Cultura en Vena, coinciding with the World Day for the fight against breast cancer, which is celebrated on the 19th, has organized a conference, ‘Art and Health’, which will take place at the Thyssen Museum. In one of its exhibition halls (number 30) they will hang, from October 19 to 26, some very special works (free admission, prior registration on the website www.culturaenvena.org). Exact replicas of three celebrated paintings have been created, in which three women show a mastectomy. Original work ‘Mastectomized’ work On the left, detail of ‘The Naked Maja’, by Goya (Museo del Prado). On the right, detail of Maja, showing her left breast after undergoing a mastectomy Photomontage: Jorge Salgado © Cultura en Vena, 2022 The photomontages have been carried out by Jorge Salgado, photographer and photoshop expert. He is “the surgeon who has performed the mastectomies”, who has ‘customized’ the charts. Digital prints on canvas made by the Museoteca. Auromarc has taken care of the frames (also identical to the originals). Two companies that work with the best museums in the world. The selected paintings are: ‘The Naked Maja’, by Goya (Museo del Prado); ‘Venus and Cupid’, by Rubens, and ‘Adam and Eve’, by Hans Baldung Grien (both from the Thyssen Museum). Each work symbolically represents a moment of the disease and each one will have a special poster, with texts by Ana Folguera, writer and art historian, who has lived in her family the blow of this disease. “What is injured is not what it seems. The wound is repaired through language. And of the look », reads one of the cartouches. Related News report Si Musas: the women hidden behind the great works of art Natividad Pulido report Si Tina Modotti and Frida Kahlo: passionate, revolutionary and free Natividad Pulido Stereotypes of the ideal of beauty, Venus, Eva and Maja Goyesca do not hide their scars. They are still as beautiful, as powerful, as desired, as women as the muses portrayed by the great masters. And seeing them hanging in a museum will make us reflect and help us make the disease visible. There are still many stigmas and taboos around it. In the Baldung Grien painting, Adam has also undergone a mastectomy. Although this cancer is very residual in men, the experts thought it positive to include it to talk about that vulnerability, that weakness. Original work ‘Mastectomized’ work On the left, detail of ‘Venus and Cupid’, by Rubens (Museo Thyssen). On the right, detail of the goddess, who shows her right breast after undergoing a mastectomy Photomontage: Jorge Salgado © Cultura en Vena, 2022 Before launching the project, supervised by surgeons and oncologists and endorsed by many industry associations, they wanted to test with thirty women who have suffered this operation in their own flesh. When contemplating ‘The Naked Maja’ they all reacted in a very positive way. «We have experienced things that make the hair stand on end when we remember them. One laughed and cried all the time », says Juan Alberto García de Cubas, president and founder of Cultura en Vena, who shows ABC the three works in his studio before traveling to the Thyssen. Architect, exhibition designer, artist…, his intention is that this collection continues to grow with more replicas to talk about illness, health and well-being in the temples of culture. The foundation’s slogan (‘culture seriously benefits health’) has been repeated like a mantra since its creation, in 2011. It was launched by García de Cubas after the illness and death of a loved one. Within the ‘Art and Health’ conference, the White Paper of the Resident Internal Musicians (MIR) will be presented, a Culture in Vena project carried out, from 2016 to 2019, in collaboration with the Hospital 12 de Octubre. It is the first scientific research in Spain on the effects of live music on different pathologies, the conclusions of which are now coming to light. ‘Música en Vena’ was born with the purpose of bringing live music to hospitals. Jordi Savall, Los Secretos, Rosario Flores, Silvia Pérez Cruz, Jorge Drexler… García de Cubas emotionally recalls cases such as that of a girl who had been in a catatonic state for seven months and, after a performance by percussionist David Cobo, got up and began to dance. Or a premature child who, after Sandra Carrasco started to sing him a flamenco lullaby, began to breastfeed for the first time. Original work ‘Mastectomised’ work On the left, detail of ‘Adam and Eve’, by Hans Baldung Grien (Museo Thyssen). On the right, detail of Adam and Eve showing their left breasts after undergoing a mastectomy Photomontage: Jorge Salgado © Cultura en Vena, 2022 In addition to the therapeutic benefit, the project generates employment in the culture sector. “Health has an ally in culture, just as culture has a responsibility towards health,” says García de Cubas, who managed to involve three sponsors during the three years of research, being able to hire 46 musicians. «Hospital service managers and heads throughout Spain want to have musicians in their units. It is not only transformative for the patient and healthcare staff, but for the artists themselves.” Testimonies of all of them collected in a documentary give a good account: «It is a return to humanistic medicine», «better than any painkiller»… «It is a project demanded by the Public Health, but it must be provided with a budget item», warns Garcia de Cubas. The European Commission launched ‘Culture for Health’, a project on how to improve well-being and health through culture. A few months ago, the WHO created the collaborative center for Art and Health, which investigates how culture affects mental and physical health. The Assembly of Madrid, the Parliament of Navarra… Convinced that culture is healing, García de Cubas also launched the program ‘Ambulatory Art’, bringing plastic art to hospitals. The first experience was carried out with replicas of Goya’s cartoons.