Gem chats to Laia Abril. Laia is a research-based artist working with photography, text, video and sound. She began her career at the iconic Colors Magazine, which left an indelible mark on how she thinks about process, authorship and collaboration. Now, her art practice is centred on creating a dialogue about hidden realities related to sexuality and gender inequality.

In this episode, we talk about her long term project, A History of Misogyny. Chapter 1 - On Abortion is a gut-wrenching exploration of the repercussions of not having access to abortion and her latest chapter On Rape, aims to call out institutional rape culture. She looks at why structures of justice, law and policy are not only failing survivors but actually encouraging perpetrators by preserving power dynamics which normalise sexual violence.

In this episode, we talk about her methodology and how it evolves over time, how she thinks about audience and how she navigates the emotional weight of the subject matter. For me, Laia is one of the most important artists working today, her work is about starting conversations around urgent issues to play her role in creating a more empathetic and safe world.

Laia Abril (1986) is currently based in Barcelona and represented by the Parisian gallery Les Filles du Calvaire. After graduating from college with a degree in Journalism she moved to New York to focus on photography where she decided to start telling intimate stories that raise uneasy and hidden realities related with sexuality, eating disorders and gender equality. In 2009, she enrolled in the artist residency at FABRICA, the Benetton Research Centre in Treviso, where she worked as a researcher, photo editor and staff photographer at Colors Magazine for 5 years.

Abril’s projects are produced across platforms such as installations, books, web docs, and films. Her work has been shown widely and published internationally and is held in private collections and museums, such as Musée de l’Elysée and Fotomuseum Winterthur in Switzerland, FRAC in France and MNAC or FotoColectania in Barcelona.

Follow Laia on Instagram @laia_abril on Instagram and visit www.laiaabril.com to see her work. Follow Gem @gemfletcher on Instagram. If you've enjoyed this episode PLEASE leave us your feedback and maybe 5 stars if we're worthy in the Apple Podcast store. Thank you for listening to The Messy Truth, we will be back very soon. For all requests, please email [email protected]

The content of this podcast could be triggering for some listeners. We discuss topics including eating disorders, sexual violence, abortion, child abuse and trauma. Do take care and if this episode could be harmful to you. Thanks for listening. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.