The exhibition, based on a project by Janice Li at the Wellcome Collection in London, has been adapted by Blanca Arias and Júlia Llull. Featuring over 400 pieces, the exhibition dialogues between artworks, documents, historical objects, and contemporary installations to explore the historical conditioning of beauty standards.
Human beauty ideals have always existed, and the exhibition delves into the mechanisms behind the construction of these canons, focusing on championing "bodies and beauties excluded from the norm." According to co-curator Júlia Llull, these canons "have delimited what bodies can do, can desire, or can be," highlighting the sustained critique from transfeminist movements that "propose other forms of beauty."
For Blanca Arias, also a co-curator, the exhibition helps to "expand our imagination" and, consequently, "what we consider beautiful and what we consider desirable." The proposal showcases a range of works where dissident bodies rebel against norms through art.
The exhibition also explores the interplay between philosophy, art, and science in defining and achieving beauty, as well as how the market creates constant demands for desirable bodies aligned with prevailing, ever-changing beauty standards.
One section of the exhibition is dedicated to scents, allowing visitors to smell Renaissance feminine perfumes and ointments, or to explore the potential scent of historical male figures like Napoleon or Tutankhamun.
Collectively, the 400 pieces demonstrate how beauty is shaped by morality, status, health, age, gender, and ethnic origin, among other factors. The exhibition includes works by artists such as William Hogarth, Angélica Dass, Laura Aguilar, Juno Calypso, Zed Nelson, Shirin Fathi, Narcissister, Ismael Smith, Isidre Nonell, Josep Masana, Colita, Sandra Gamarra, Esther Ferrer, Regina José Galindo, Maria Alcaide, Colectivo Ayllu, Lorenza Böttner, Marina Vargas, Arvida Byström, Harriet Davey, or Renaissance Goo x Baum & Leahy.
