El Corazón Aúlla (Heart Howls):
Latin American Feminist Performance in Revolt

Curated by Alexis Heller and Tatiana Muñoz-Brenes,
Recipients of Inaugural Curatorial Open Call

September 29, 2022 – January 21, 2023

The New York Times review (January 4, 2023) by Jillian Steinhauer

This exhibition continues to be accessible through our virtual presentation at the bottom of this page, best experienced on desktop. Please email us with any questions on navigating the virtual space.

The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation is pleased to present El Corazón Aúlla (Heart Howls): Latin American Feminist Performance in Revolt at The 8th Floor, opening on September 29, 2022 and on view until January 21, 2023. Curated by Alexis Heller and Tatiana Muñoz-Brenes, the exhibition includes work from Nayla Altamirano, Denise E. Reyes Amaya, Elina Chauvet, Cristina Flores, Regina José Galindo, Fernanda Laguna and Cecilia Palmeiro, Flavia Marcus Bien, Luiza Prado de O. Martins, Rossella Matamoros-Jiménez, Bárbara Milano, Wynnie Mynerva, Jazmín Ra, and Berna Reale.

The exhibition examines gender-based violence in Latin America through the eyes of artists and activists who bear its daily burden. Working from Peru, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, El Salvador, Chile, Brazil, and Argentina, the female and nonbinary artists included in El Corazón Aúlla harness their practices for rebellion. Performance is a particularly powerful tool for confronting brutal absence and loss. Through performance, they evoke the rage, fear, ritualized mourning, and feminist community care that inhabits their fight for survival.

As Heller and Muñoz-Brenes write: “These performances, their aesthetic decisions, and their particular social contexts answer questions that other artistic media cannot answer, or that could not establish an alliance with the viewer in the search for social justice.” They continue, “Gender violence, reaching its highest peaks in feminicide and state violence, is a topic that should be howled when shouting is not enough, and that should go through political corporality and affections when common sense fails to bring about change.”

Learn more about the featured artists in the full press release linked below.

Alexis Heller received a BA in Psychology from Wesleyan University and an MA in Social Work from Columbia University. She began an independent curatorial practice in 2012 centering marginalized LGBTQIA+ and Feminist histories. Heller has organized a number of exhibitions at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art in NYC, Smack Mellon in Brooklyn, as well as several alternative art spaces. She currently lives between New York and Costa Rica.

Tatiana Muñoz-Brenes is an art curator and researcher, specialized in LGBTIQ+ museums and queer art by her work with the Museo de la Identidad y el Orgullo (MIO). She graduated from the History of Art and Psychology careers at the University of Costa Rica, in which she serves as a teacher. As an independent curator, her formation has also allowed her to work on the subjects of community museums, sustainability, collections research, exhibition curatorship and curatorial accompaniment of artistic production. 

Press Release – English, Spanish
Brochure – English, Spanish
Essay – English and Spanish

Image description: A person wearing a bright red cloak has the bottom half tied up with their legs spread, revealing a black thong and a pistol suspended between the knees, pointing upwards. The person has their arms behind their head and is standing in front of a decadent building.

Installation views of “El Corazón Aúlla” at The 8th Floor, September 2022. Photos by Adam Reich. Courtesy of the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation.

Visit the virtual presentation of El Corazón Aúlla:

Best experienced on desktop. If you encounter any difficulties, please contact info@the8thfloor.org.