By Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES, May 25 2006 (IPS)

A group of female prostitutes in Buenos Aires is using art to lay bare their situation – that is, the state and societal abuse they endure – to the public.

One part of the installation features a bed smothered with photos of a female corpse; “I used to be beautiful” is scrawled in Spanish across the images. Others depict women with their eyes and mouths covered with condoms, their heads in a box of food, or definitions and comments written on sheets and pillows.

“A red-light district is a zone of sexual exploitation, where boundaries are defined by political and police corruption,” reads one of the phrases. Another: “I ask the State: Why don’t I have a job? Why don’t I have an education? Why am I not free to make decisions about my own body?”

“We want to see what happens when men and women are confronted with our daily lives, because sexual exploitation is also perpetuated by those who turn a blind eye,” the coordinator of the exhibit, Sonia Sánchez, told IPS.

The Buenos Aires show is actually the second presentation of the “No Woman is Born to Be a Whore” exhibit. The feminist collective Mujeres Creando (Women Creating) began this dialogue in January when it mounted the first edition of the exhibit in the members’ home country of Bolivia.

Two Argentine women – including Sánchez – were so moved by the exhibit in La Paz and the reactions it provoked that they made plans to bring it to Buenos Aires.

When the original AMMAR was first established, protection and safety were the main issues. At that time, the consensus view defined prostitution as “sexual work.” “The goal was to increase our visibility, but now we define ourselves as unemployed women involved in prostitution,” said Sánchez.

One of the installation’s three beds is unmade and strewn with condoms. But the most provocative is completely covered by black-and-white images of a prostitute’s body.

The photos are marked with Spanish phrases scribbled in pink, childlike letters. “I used to be beautiful.” “I believed in Prince Charming.” “At 27 I died of a brain haemorrhage, brought on by a beating by my pimp.” And the last “Even in death, my body still hurts.”

The show also includes excerpts from Egyptian author Nawal El Saadawi’s book Woman at Point Zero; synonyms for pimp, including the vulgar -“fiolo, cafisho” – and the outwardly political -“exploiter, dictator”; and a definition of a client: “a person who buys sex and enjoys social impunity.”

The women of AMMAR-Capital added a pyramid of food boxes distributed to them by the Buenos Aires Municipal Food Policy Department, along with surveys that reveal the sordid social conditions women in prostitution bear.

Most are mothers with at least three children. They live in rented rooms, squatter housing or pensions. Some are illiterate, and few have even a basic primary school education. “If you have to lie about where you work, it’s not a job,” reasoned Sánchez.

The pyramid of food boxes and photographs of women with their eyes and mouth covered by condoms represent public policy on dealing with women who prostitute themselves as a last resort.

“We’re just sexual objects they have to feed and supply with condoms, rather than people with rights. We deserve the right to education and a decent job, the right to come home and be able to say how the hell we make a living,” Sánchez argued.

The exhibit was scheduled to run at the Centro Cultural Borges May 4-15, but it was carried over to May 21 due to public demand. The organisers also added a discussion forum, held May 19.

The public’s comments in the visitor’s book were overwhelmingly positive. Most appreciated the awareness-raising aspect. Some gained strength to keep on. Very few rejected the message. “We’re thrilled that we got this kind of attention,” said the exhibit coordinator.

“The response has been amazing. People from distant provinces are asking us to make it a travelling exhibit, and we have also received calls from (neighbouring) Uruguay. Never before has the sexual exploitation of women been talked about in this way,” said Sánchez.

The last piece in the installation is a hotel sheet, which forms the backdrop to newspaper clippings on murdered prostitutes and women involved in human trafficking and sexual exploitation, as well as an open letter:

“Sir, ma’am, don’t think that I like standing on the sidewalk outside your door. But my clients are your brothers, husbands, cousins or sons, and the priests who hear your confession. Prostitution is not just a whore’s issue. If you don’t want me on your corner, fight by my side, raise your voice with me. I’m here to say enough is enough.”

Sánchez explained that in recent years, prostitutes have been changing their perception of themselves, such as when they organised themselves and asked to be considered sex-trade workers. Now, in AMMAR-Capital, they define themselves as women in a situation of prostitution, so that someday they can just be women.

“It is an ongoing process that takes time and requires support from society and the State. Only dialogue and discussion will help get us out of the closet,” she concluded.

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