Abstract

TRAPLE WIECZOREK, Gabriela. Portraiture as Denunciation and Resistance in the Work of Eleonora Ghioldi. Vista [online]. 2025, n.16, e025020.  Epub Dec 31, 2025. ISSN 2184-1284.  https://doi.org/10.21814/vista.6582.

This article aims to examine the portraits produced by the Argentine feminist photographer and filmmaker Eleonora Ghioldi (1972, Buenos Aires) as forms of denunciation and resistance to gender-based violence, also addressing issues of intersectionality and collaboration in her three main projects: Guerreras (Warriors), Aborto Legal Ya! (Legal Abortion Now!), and Atravesadxs (Traversed). Guerreras began in 2011, emerging from dialogues between Ghioldi and her friends regarding experiences of violence, and over the years, expanded to include accounts from cis and trans women of various ages and racial backgrounds. Atravesadxs originated from the artist’s engagement with Gustavo Melmann, father of Natalia Melmann, a victim of femicide in 2001, and now gathers over 70 testimonies from relatives and friends of murdered women. Meanwhile, Aborto Legal Ya! documents the struggle for the legalisation and protection of abortion in Argentina, approaching the topic from multiple perspectives, including public health and intergenerational issues. The works consist of portraits accompanied by testimonies, displayed on a large scale in public and institutional spaces, as well as a short film. The analysis is grounded in Emma Lewis’s (2021) research on photography and portraiture from a feminist and activist perspective; Dominique Baqué’s (2009) contributions on representations of violence in photography and socially engaged art; and Rita Segato’s (2016) studies on the structures of gender-based violence. Our theoretical framework is also informed by the writings of Verónica Gago (2019/2020) on feminist articulation in Latin America, Judith Butler (2016) on vulnerability, resistance, and networks of solidarity, as well as the theoretical contributions of the book Transfeminismo o Barbarie (Transfeminism or Barbarism; Gil, 2020).

Keywords : Argentina; feminisms; photography; Eleonora Ghioldi; gender-based violence.

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