2025 The Face of Medusa on Minerva’s Shield

The Face of Medusa on Minerva’s Shield
On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the archaeological ensemble of Tarraco, the Museum of Modern Art of the Diputació de Tarragona, together with Dr. Marta Pol Rigau, PhD and graduate in Art History, is organizing a programme of six performances by women artists. The aim is both to showcase and promote best practices focused on gender equality, and to contribute to artistic creation and research in performative languages.

The programme of the performance cycle “The Face of Medusa on Minerva’s Shield” presents six artists who examine the condition of women in Roman civilization from political, religious, ritual, poetic, and theatrical perspectives. To do so, they engage with classical philosophical texts through the myths of Medusa and Minerva, establishing a connection between the Roman architectural heritage of the city of Tarragona, religious rituals, and performative processes, while highlighting the persistence of certain issues in gender politics.

This performance cycle will take place in the historic outdoor spaces of Tarragona, in relation to Roman culture, especially regarding gender conditions in the classical world, from political, ritual, religious-theatrical, or poetic perspectives — not only as a review of the past but as a reconsideration of this cultural legacy in the present.

RITUALS AND PERFORMANCES

The performances of Anna Dot, Mireia Coromina, Laia Estruch, Mariona Moncunill, nara is neus, and Núria Rion explore and examine women’s roles and stereotypes, both in the political and literary context and in the rituals of daily life.

Public religious rituals were generally carried out by men, except in the case of the Vestals, which were performed by priestesses. Mireia Coromina, with the ritual performance Compondre, establishes a connection with the protective ceremonies performed by the Vestals, who prepared the sacred unleavened bread (mola salsa) to purify offerings and animal sacrifices.

Family ceremonies in which women played an active role were those linked to life and death, as shown in the works of Anna Dot and Núria Rion. The First Bath, by Anna Dot, relates to Roman rituals in which water had a purifying role, especially during childbirth and the newborn’s first bath. In this ritual, the role of women was essential, both in the process of pregnancy and childbirth, where midwives played a role similar to that of the Parcae. Fer aflorar, by Núria Rion, addresses the invisibility of women in Roman culture through the use of fabrics. Straw is an element with various functions throughout a woman’s life: it is the mantle that protects them at birth, the mantle that shields them as adults in public spaces, and the funeral shroud that accompanies them at the moment of death.

The mythological and human female figures of Mariona Moncunill, Laia Estruch, and nara is neus revisit the significance of the myths of Medusa and Minerva to highlight the preexistence of sexist stereotypes and gender violence, present both in history and in classical literature.

Mariona Moncunill, in the performance Fonteia a Clàudia, Júlia a Valèria, investigates gender violence and sexist stereotypes in Roman history and literature. She draws inspiration from Ovid’s Heroides, in which the author gives voice to mythological women, to give voice to contemporary women who maintain some type of professional relationship with the Roman remains of Tarragona, such as archaeologists, historians, cleaners and conservators, guides, mediators, architects, and managers, in order to create a dialogue between different eras and female roles.

In her performance The Voice of the Stones, Laia Estruch seeks to generate sound poetry through the ritual of giving stones female voices, such as those of Minerva and Medusa, with the aim of creating a vocal work that combines a cappella voice as a porous material, similar to the clay and earth of stones, to construct a fragile yet powerful sound instrument.

nara is neus, in Nocives, takes as a guiding thread the status of non-citizens in ancient Rome and re-signifies them as noxious, malevolent, and unhealthy beings. With this concept, the live action seeks to give voice and visibility to female figures who were controlled and silenced, by fragmenting and reordering Ovid’s poems.

Each artist brings a personal perspective to reassess the Roman cultural legacy from a contemporary and feminist viewpoint.

Credits:
Date: May 31, 2025
Location: Various archaeological sites in Tarragona
Text: Marta Pol Rigau
Photography: Lila Alberich. Tarragona Provincial Council. MAMT Photographic Archive
Video: Lens-Lab
Production and organization: Museum of Art of the Tarragona Provincial Council

Publication:

Marta Pol Rigau. (2025). «The Face of Medusa on Minerva’s Shield». Revista Bonart.