The Pocket. Monstrous Femininity Exhibition: Interview with the Artist. Alejandro Bravo.
After being part of Monstrous Femininity exhibition, curated by Marcela Villanueva, Alejandro Bravo reflects on their art in an interview with Myriam Martínez.
Meet the artist
Alejandro Bravo is “an artist who focuses on aesthetics: how it affect our lives, our personalities, and how it control us“. “I get inspired by my surroundings, my intuition and feelings”. “My work is a way to reclaim the dominant vision of art, which has historically belonged to white men. Their personal experiences are intellectualized by default, so my concept is born from my own history as a non-binary person“. “Being able to work from a personal perspective and then translate it into a collective experience has been very empowering for me”.
“I like creating things that deviate from the norm. I like being polarizing. I don’t think it’s difficult to be political in the art world when your main theme is femininity. Whether you intend it or not.” “Nowadays, the distinction between masculine and feminine aesthetics is a daily debate. It affects our bodies; it’s a way of controlling people“. “When I first presented this piece here in Berlin, a woman yelled at me. Se accused me of portraying women as monsters. And I think provoking that kind of strong reaction is part of the point”.
“I’m confident in what I do, so it doesn’t bother me too much if people don’t like my art. If queer people were to respond negatively, that might be different. But so far, those who dislike my work usually come from a different background — they see it as kitsch because their experience is different”. “It’s important to get used to seeing things we don’t like. I think about that a lot when I work on artpieces for public spaces”. “It’s part of the human experience. We are used to controlling everything, but there has to be room for both the beautiful and the ugly. Whatever those terms mean”.
Monstrous Femininity Exhibition and The Pocket Gallery
“This work deals with femininity as an aesthetic. Part of that is always being watched. People pass by the piece while it is ‘dressing itself’ in front of them — it’s poetic, putting on its true skin while being exposed. There is no safety, no separation from the audience”. “I think ‘Monstrous Femininity’ also unintentionally reflects queerness: being different and demanding attention”. “Being powerful by taking up space but also vulnerable to how others react”. “Using clay was important. It’s a fragile material that looks strong, and I wanted to reflect that”. “This pink monster is now the biggest thing in the reception of Hotel Gat Point Charlie, and that’s incredible”.
“I always work size-specific, so when something more challenging or unconventional — like this — comes up, I think it makes the art more compelling. What first caught my interest about The Pocket Gallery was the curved walls. I felt like placing the piece inside a fitting room, which is kind of sexy, while evoking a subtle sense of restriction, because the sculpture fills most of it. The installation looks so different in the space that it feels like another world inside the hotel — it’s enclosed, the lighting is different, the pink color…”
Public art and challenges
“My public art practice develops within a Swedish context“. “City planning tends to lean towards masculine aesthetics. It lacks warmth and softness, often favoring hard lines and black-and-white tones”. “I follow the required guidelines, although I always try to introduce some contrast: a touch of fantasy and magic”. “You have to find a way to prove that even a small disruption is important. That is something with meaning, that it’s more than just visually pleasing”. “Depending on the space — whether it’s a library or a hospital —, I approach it differently. But I’ve always believed that art should be a way to escape reality. And that relates to the queer experience as well. I think being queer is also about searching for something more beautiful”.
“Color is another key element in my artwork. We shouldn’t let them be reduced to mere capitalistic tools — something used in advertisements to grab attention. That’s part of why they are often seen as ‘too much’ or described as garish”. “Nature is full of colors, and even if you don’t like them, they make you feel something. I want people to feel something new when they see my work“. “Even when I don’t like a piece, I appreciate that it exists because it creates contrast”.
Horror, femininity and aesthetic disruption
“Berlin, like Sweden, has a certain harshness in its aesthetic. But it also has a sense of madness and grittiness that reveals there’s more within the city. There is emotion on the streets — people shouting, graffiti-covered walls, quirky buildings —. In northern Europe, these things get hidden”. “When I arrived here, I let horror influence my work for the first time. I’ve always loved the genre, movies like Alien or Scream, but it wasn’t until I experienced the chaos of Berlin that I realized I had never explored it in my art”. “Previously, I focused more on pop culture influences, divas and glamorous aesthetics. Now, I want to combine both: explore the boundaries between femininity and eeriness“. “And that often appears when femininity becomes sexual, excessive, or bodily uncomfortable: what is deemed ‘ugly’ by certain standards”.
“Femininity, especially queer femininity, is a force of nature. It screams in your face, makes people uncomfortable. Looking at horror movies, I find it interesting how bodies are represented when they become dangerous — even pregnancy is often framed in a way meant to disturb. There’s nothing more unsettling than a woman acting crazy, a body provoking disgust. Femininity is always expected to be clean and beautiful”.
Future plans
“I want my art to be beautiful, but beauty is not its only purpose. Just like decoration is traditionally seen as feminine, but that doesn’t mean it lacks meaning”. “I like to represent femininity alongside power — on its own terms, not just as the opposite of masculinity“. “No matter the material or technique, my goal is to create powerful art that embraces aesthetics and knows its place. I want femininity to stand with strength, as its own thing — I’m set on making it to be an ‘in your face’ kind of thing”.
“I’m currently working on another sculpture. And there’s a lot of technological development in sculpture now, with 3D printing and so on, but I think, in the future, people will long for handmade objects. Flaws make things feel real; not mass-produced. We’ve seen perfect sculptures for years, but in the end, craft is what will endure, I think”. “I used clay for the first time for ‘Monstruos Femininity’, and after six months working with it with my hands, entering a near-meditative state during the process, I think I will keep using it”. “Trying new things is innate to my creative process. I love experimenting, but it feels exhausting sometimes. I’ve had to find comfort in that, not let it overwhelm me”.
Myriam Martínez
