Migrant Women Press selected the work of 4 migrant women artists who are bringing more colours, consciousness, and happiness to our lives.
by Juliana da Penha
Terezinha Malaquias
Brazilian visual artist, performer and writer living in Germany
Terezinha Malaquias graduated from the Edith Maryon Kunstschule Freiburg (Germany), where she has lived for 11 years. She is the author of 6 books, including “Modelo Vivo” (Live Model), in which she speaks about her journey in this profession; in the year of publication of the book, she had already spent fourteen years as a live model.
Teodoro, published in 2019, is a book of Poetry structured in narratives and short stories about events in her everyday life, both in Germany and in Brazil.
Terezinha’s art navigates through different areas, from performing, painting, literature and poetry. “I am free to work with what I know and love to do. Result: more happiness and quality of life,” she says in an interview with Espaço Viveka.
Terezinha’s photo performances/self-portraits series “Schau mich an… (Look at me…) work with the themes of visibility and resistance.
Since 2011, she invites someone from the audience to sit at the table with her and have coffee, cake or cheese bread while chatting. It is inspired by her performance Café da Manhã/ Frühstück. She is also the creator and presenter of the program “Brasileirxs e estrangeirxs como eu” (Brazilians and foreigners like me), in which she interviews Brazilians living abroad.
https://www.terezinhamalaquias.com/
https://www.instagram.com/terezinhamalaquias/
https://www.facebook.com/terezinhamalaquiasperformer/
Sarah Khayat
Syrian graphic designer and artist living in Istanbul
In Sarah’s work, intense colours and her unique art denounces the violations that Syrian women face at home and abroad. Sarah is a Syrian refugee in Turkey. She encourages a reflection on various issues, such as gender-based violence, the experiences of women who have survived detention and mental health issues, and refugee women’s lives. She is a graduate of Visual Communications from Damascus University’s Faculty of Fine Arts.
Sarah’s paintings clearly stand against all forms of oppression. “When I paint sexual harassment, I paint myself. When I paint about violence, I paint myself. When I paint anything, it feels like it is me or someone I know is in the painting”, she said in an interview with Enab Baladi Newspaper.
Sarah is involved in actions, supporting organizations, publications and events denouncing Syrian women’s struggle and advocacy for their rights. For example, in 2018, she participated in the campaign ” Survivors, or not yet”, based on oral histories documenting the memories of women who had survived detention in Syria and their suffering from society’s rejection after the arrest, which prevented them from moving on.
https://www.instagram.com/sarakhayatart/?hl=it
https://www.facebook.com/sara.khayat.773
Francisca Nzenze
Angolan artist and illustrator living in Brazil
A couple of years ago, I found out about a Facebook page with comics titled “A Kindumba da Ana”. The process of transition through which many black women were experiencing acceptance of their natural hair was discussed with unique and comic illustrations. So I met the artist Francisca Nzenze who primarily uses watercolour to create a variety of artworks, especially featuring women characters.
Francisca Nzenze is from Angola but lived in Portugal from 1980 to 1990 when she was a child during the Angolan civil war. When her family returned to Angola in her teens, the country was still at war, which ended finally in 2000. She studied and practised journalism at a local radio station, working as a reporter and editor. After marrying a Brazilian, she moved to Brazil, where she lives with her husband and two children. She teaches watercolour classes at an art gallery and develops illustration works as a freelancer.
On the occasion of her first son’s birth, while still in Angola, she wrote and illustrated a children’s book. Illustration, and especially children’s books, are still passions of hers today. She is one of the illustrators of the book “50 incredible Brazilians to meet before you grow up”, by Debora Thomé about great Brazilian feminists and thinkers. She also collaborated on a collection of biographies of Black women.
“Imagine the impact for black children so poorly represented to have a book like this in their hands, made by women just like them. It is a breath of hope! ” she said at Curadoria, a platform inspiring and connecting creative women.
https://www.instagram.com/francisca_nzenze/?hl=it
www.facebook.com/kindumbadaana
Zeinab Nourzehi
Afghan painter living in Greece
“I thought here in Europe we would be safe, that I would go to better places as I always thought about and heard, but there wasn’t any better situation,” said Zeinab about her experience in Europe. She expresses all the difficulties thousands of asylum seekers face using arts, painting stories of the harsh conditions in Greece, pregnant women’s situations, and conveying an enduring sense of hope. She sells her work to support her family. ” I want to make a life for my baby.”
Zeinab explained that she never had a chance to attend any school because of the Taliban regime in her city. However, she had a teacher in her house who taught her how to read and write. When she was 17 years old, a member of the Taliban wanted to marry her, but her father refused, so she started to face threats, her father said she should marry her cousin and left Afghanistan.
She married and left the country, leaving her family and friends. She first came to Iran and then to Turkey. She was in Turkey for 2 years, but she said it was dangerous to stay there.
She was six months pregnant with her first child when she and her husband Pejvak departed from Izmir, on Turkey’s Aegean coast, for the Greek island of Lesbos in a dinghy in October 2019 and stayed in Moria refugee camp.
Today, Zeinab, her husband and their daughter, Selena, live in Oropos, Greece, in an accommodation facility for refugee families, where they wait for their asylum application to be processed. Her paintings are an important source of income for her family.