LBD is the abbreviation for "Little Black Dress", a fashionista term that refers to a black, short and versatile dress that every woman should have in her wardrobe.
This project is about the influence and pressure exerted by the canons of the fashion world on the construction of the female body. In the beginning, fashion was tailor-made for each client: the tailor made the designer's dresses, adapting them to each woman's body. With the advent of industrial production, garments began to be mass-produced, giving rise to "prêt-à-porter" (ready-to-wear garments). The predefined sizes propose a significant change: from this moment on it is the woman's body that has to adapt to the shape of the dress and not the other way around. Since then, the collections, catalogues and fashion shows have been presented in a single size: the European size 38. The model of a white, young and thin woman becomes the stereotype and also extends to cinema, television and the media, making invisible the diversity of the female body in terms of sizes, shapes, race and age.
For this project, Yolanda Domínguez has chosen a 38 size LGB (Little Black Dress) of a fast fashion brand. She is photographing women of all sizes, races and ages with the goal of generating an imaginary that shows the diversity of the bodies in contraposition to the limiting model. For some women, this dress is too small, for others too big – but they are all empowered and proud of their bodies.
The proposal, never before exposed, consists of a sample of these images, accessible after passing through an installation of changing rooms, those symbolic spaces in which people face the conflict between our own image and the one dictated by fashion. Visitors will have to dialogue with feelings as diverse as complexes, desires, guilt, acceptance…
A reflection on gender and social conscience.
A critical look at the representation of women in fashion.
"No necesitamos más objetos, necesitamos experiencias que conecten a las personas. Yo quiero generar sinergias y campos de acción: no para que soñemos, sino para despertarnos del sueño"
Art can change the world, and that is one of the reasons why Yolanda Domínguez, an artist who is an expert in communication and gender, uses it to awaken social awareness and empower people. Her working method consists of creating actions that connect people to each other and, in turn, generate communities that manifest themselves regarding a conflict.
This is precisley the direction in which she has taken her studies of Fine Arts, carried out at the Complutense University of Madrid, as well as the Master in Art and New Technologies and the Master in Photography carried out at the European University of Madrid and at the EFTI School of Photography respectively.
Her projects deal with social issues related to gender and consumption. In 2013 she buried several bloggers under the rubble of the Gran Vía to make an appeal for responsible production. Her best-known work, called 'Poses', already accumulates more than a million reproductions on YouTube even beyond our borders. In that project, she asked several women to imitate in the street the poses with which models are represented in magazines.
In 2004, she organised her collective action 'Registry': women from all over Spain mobilized to go en masse to the Property Registries to request ownership of their body, following the controversy over the Draft Abortion Law. In 2015, she launched the counter-campaign 'Accesorias y accesibles', as a protest of a sexist advertisement for a famous brand of glasses. The action was a great success within the sector and many media published it. Her 'Children vs. Fashion', in which a group of children comment on the fashion campaigns of recent years, was awarded in 2016 by the Design Museum in London.
In 2010 she was awarded a scholarship by the Spanish Ministry of Culture for the Promotion of Spanish Art Abroad, and in 2014 she was given a special mention in the 'Freedom of Expression' awards along with the winning newspaper 'The Guardian'. She also stands out for her exhibitions in different museums, such as El Museo del Traje in Madrid or the Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and others of recognised prestige outside our borders, such as Elga Wimmer Gallery in New York, Streitfeld Projektraum in Munich, Open Systems in Vienna or Rojo Artspace in Milan.
Currently, she combines his artistic life with the educational field, collaborating with different universities and schools around the world through workshops and conferences. She is also a professor of 'Image as a tool for social transformation' in the Master of Contemporary Photography at the EFTI school in Madrid and carries out specific actions for social organisations from all over the world, such as Greenpeace, Médicos del Mundo or Change.org. She is also a columnist at Huffington Post Spain, where she writes weekly about the representation of women in the media.
Master in Arts and New Technologies. European Univerisity of Madrid
Master in Photography. School of Photography EFTI, Madrid
INDIVIDUAL EXHIBITIONS
2017: “Little Black Dress” Museo del Traje, PHotoESPAÑA, Madrid
2016: “Mapas de Acción” CAAM, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
2016: Acción para Art Madrid 2016 “Total Correction”
2015: “Mapas de Acción” Galería Serendipia, Madrid (España)
2014: “Galería” Twin Gallery, Madrid (España)
2014: Universidad New México Highlands, Nuevo México (USA)
2013: Galería Pilar Cubillo de Madrid (España)
2013: Museo Municipal Ramón Mª Aller, Pontevedra (España)
2012: Galería Rojo Artspace de Milán, (Italia)
2012: “Esclavas” Galería Rafael Pérez Hernando de Madrid (España)
2012: “Preludios” Photoespaña Galería Rafael Pérez Hernando de Madrid (España)
COLLECTIVE EXHIBITIONS
2016: Feminart. Espacio Turina, Sevilla
2016: Forum Stadpark, Austria
2016: “La Corteza del Alma” Galería Fernando Pradilla, Madrid
2015: “Gymnastics of the Kitchen” Propuesta de participación colectiva en Matadero, Madrid
2015: “Desmontando poderes y silencios” Ayuntamiento de Fuenlabrada, Madrid
2015: “Mujeres en acción: Feminario Videoperformativo” AECID (Honduras, Bolivia, San Salvador, República Dominicana)
2015: “Octavi Cameron. Contracte comú” Can Palauet, Barcelona (España)
2014: Women’s Film Festival in New Orleans, (USA)
2014: Foreman Gallery Oneota, Nueva York (USA)
2014: The Lycoming College Art Gallery, Pennsylvania (USA)
2014: “Turismo Efímero” Galería Addaya, Mallorca (España)
2014: Sarau Tropicaos de Rio de Janeiro, (Brasil)
2014: “What if…and beyond” Open Systems Vienna (Austria)
2014: Arte Open Views, Madrid (España)
2014: “Mínimos” Galería Cero, Madrid (España)
2014: Galería KKOutlet Londres (Reino Unido)
2013: Affordable Art Fair. Galería Pilar Cubillo (Mexico)
2013: Galería Elga Wimmer en Nueva York, (USA)
2013: Fundación Amelia Moreno, Toledo (España)
2012: Streitfeld Projektraum en Munich (Alemania)
2012: Festival de Cultura Contemporánea NOVA 2012 Barcelona (España)
2012: Festival de Cultura Contemporánea NOVA 2012 Sao Paulo (Brasil)
2012: VIII Encuentros Internacionales de Arte y Género, Madrid (España)
2012: Mulier Mulieris – Museo de la Universidad de Alicante (España)
2012: JustMad, Madrid (España)
2011: Festival Exist Live Art/Performance Art, Brisbane (Australia)
2010: Mulier Mulieris, Museo de la Universidad de Alicante (España)
2009: Allianza Francesa, Madrid (España)
2008: Photoespaña 2008, EFTI, Madrid (España)
AWARDS AND SCHOLARSHIPS
2016: Baezly Designs of the Year. Design Museum. Londres
2014: Mención Especial Premi Llibertat d’Expressió 2014 Unió de Periodistes Valencians
2013: Premios RAC, Nominación Mejor Artista revelación 2013
2013: Beca Ayudas a la Creación Visual VEGAP
2010: Beca del Ministerio de Cultura para la Promoción del Arte Contemporáneo Español
CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS
2017: TEDxMadrid Revelando estereotipos
2016: Speaker en “Here 2016” Symposium anual de talentos creativos, Londres (Reino Unido)
2016: “La representación de la mujer en los medios” Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (España)
2016: “La imagen motor de cambio” Hospital La Fe, Valencia (España)
2016: “La imagen motor de cambio” Espacio Fundación Telefónica, Madrid (España)
2016: “1,2,3, Acción” Injuve, Madrid (España)
2016: “La imagen como elemento clave para el cambio social” Diputación General de Jaén (España)
2016: AMMA Jornadas de Cine y Medios Audiovisuales por la Igualdad (España)
2016: Conferencia “La imagen como elemento clave para el cambio social” Escuela Universitaria de Osuna (España)
2015: Conferencia “Imagen y Medios de Comunicación” VI Congreso Violencia de Género, Sevilla (España)
2015: “Activando la ciudad” Unzip – El Prat, Barcelona (España)
2015: “Art, Media + Technology” en Parsons, (París)
2015: “Estrategias para la participación colectiva” Festival Iberoamericano de Teatro de Cádiz (España)
2015: “Descodificando los mass media” Instituto IES Barrio de Bilbao, Madrid (España)
2015: “Artivismo en las redes sociales” Curso de Igualdad Lalín, Pontevedra (España)
2015: “Mujer, cuerpo y acción” Mesa redonda en Art Madrid (España)
2015: Taller “Arte como lugar de [inter]cambio social” Art Madrid (España)
2014: “Nuevas estrategias fotográficas” Blurphoto, Sevilla (España)
2014: “La experiencia colectiva del arte” Festival Desvelarte, Arte Público, Santander (España)
2014: “Art as a tool for social transformation” Florida Gulf Coast University (USA)
2014: “Gender in Europe: an unfinished revolution?” Curso de verano UCEM de El Escorial, Madrid (España)
2014: “Arte, género y acción” Ateneo Republicano de Valladolid (España)
2014: “Encuentro con la artista visual Yolanda Domínguez” We-traders, Matadero, Madrid (España)
2014: Visiting Professorship New Mexico Highlands University (USA)
2014: “Arte y género” IES Barrio de Bilbao, Madrid (España)
2013: “El conflicto del género a través de la creación” Sociedad Fotográfica Alavesa, Vitoria (España)
2013: “Artefactos para la Igualdad” Curso Nuevas Fronteras en la Igualdad de Oportunidades, Pontevedra (España)
2012: “Arte como herramienta educativa” Curso Nuevas Fronteras en la Igualdad de Oportunidades, Pontevedra (España)
2012: “La objetificación sexual” Università degli Studi di Perugia (Italia)
2012: Jornadas Fotográficas Museo del Traje, Madrid (España)
2011: “Arte de acción” Universidad de Bellas Artes CES Felipe II de Aranjuez, Madrid (España)
2011: “Mujeres y Creación” Centro Cultural Conde Duque, Madrid (España)
2010: “Sólo sobrevive el más creativo” Jornadas Álava Emprende, Vitoria (España)
2010: Jornadas Fotográficas Instituto Carlos Mª Rodríguez de Valcárcel, Madrid (España)
2010: “Fotografía y Género” Asociación de Fotografía de Guadalajara (España)
2010: “Arte y activismo” Asociación de Mujeres de Gordexola, Vizcaya (España)
