Brazil: the sculpture of a giant vagina unleashes a …

The sculpture of a giant vagina, installed on a meadow in the northeast of Brazil, unleashed a cultural war between liberals and conservatives, including allies of President Jair Bolsonaro.

“Diva”, the 33-meter concrete and resin monument the extension was presented by the visual artist Juliana Notari Saturday in a rural art park on the grounds of a former sugar mill in Pernambuco, one of Brazil’s most dynamic states.

In a Facebook post, Notari said the hillside vagina was meant to “challenge the relationship between nature and culture in our phallocentric and anthropocentric Western society” and provoke a debate on “gender problematization”.

“Today, these issues have become more and more urgent,” added the artist in what seemed in part to be a reference to Jair Bolsonaro’s increasingly intolerant climate in Brazil.

The huge bright red sculpture, which took 11 months to complete by a team of 20 artisans, sparked a lively debate on social media, with over 15,000 people commenting on Notari’s post, both supporters and critics of the work.

“With all due respect, I didn’t like it. Imagine that I walk with my little girls in this park and they ask (…) Dad, what is it? What will I answer? A man wrote.

In response, a women’s organization wrote: “With all due respect, you can teach your daughters not to be ashamed of their own genitals.”

As, Bolsonaro’s political guru, Olavo de Carvalho, took to Twitter to criticize Notari’s work, apparently offering a sculpture of a giant penis as a challenge. His comments drew nearly 700 retweets, many of which were laden with open criticism of the artist and his lawyers.

Since taking office in 2019, Bolsonaro has repeatedly criticized artistic expressions and cataloged artists, many of whom oppose his government, such as decadent partisans squeezing public funds to sell communist waste.