Mirta
Tapestry and Carpet for
Sitap Carpet Couture Italia
2023
Mirta is a hand-tufted tapestry designed by Elena Trevisan for Sitap Couture Italia. Mirta consecrates feminine uniqueness, strength and beauty. Trevisan conceived her as a heroine. It’s her feminist manifesto. Now more than ever, as designers, we should look at design as an advocate for social, environmental and political change. Mirta represents when politicians’ words to try to improve the world for women become a reality. The mask of patriarchy oppressing contemporary society falls aside, and a woman chooses for herself, literally blooming. Everyone can be equal despite their differences – race, gender, sexuality, background, mental and physical abilities. Mirta tells the story of a new contemporary society where difference is valued and celebrated. A world where women do things their way and grab the stage. With men equal to them. It is the moment we all, as humankind, deserve. We owe it to the idea of civilisation, equality, and the most significant notion of all: freedom.
Process
Patriarchy and gender oppression in our society are closely related. The patriarchal system makes structural and instrumental use of gender oppression. It happens dramatically in the countries of the third world, where millions of girls are still kept away from schools. Or from pursuing their dreams and exploring their talents. But it happens just as seriously in the countries of the highly industrialised West. In prosperous Western economies, although it is undeniable that from the point of view of gender relations, many things have changed and that women, thanks to their struggles, enjoy freedoms and get job positions unimaginable in the last century, patriarchy and a general culture of possession are becoming increasingly aggressive. Femicide is not a state of exception or emergency but a structural phenomenon, the extreme consequence of the patriarchal culture that feeds and justifies it.
We are all victims of a patriarchal society. Men, too, carry this burden on their shoulders. To be ‘manly’ and ‘strong’ and that they suffer when they do not meet those social expectations. Traits like aggression, power, stubbornness, and greed are glorified, whereas empathy, care, and foresight are vilified. Men cannot cry. Girls run like a girl. We are fed these nonsensical stereotypes daily through books, movies, stories, norms, and media. Patriarchal societies invent these convenient dichotomies and play the nature card to corroborate them. Like ‘men and women can’t get equity because they are not equal’. Simply by ‘nature’. This propaganda is all made-up, socially constructed, and conveniently practised. There is nothing natural about it.
According to Greek mythology, Mirta (Myrsine in Ancient Greek) was an Attic girl who won the favour of Athena thanks to her impressive athletic achievements. Myrsine surpassed all girls in beauty and all boys in strength. During gymnastics games, she excelled, beating all her opponents. Many of the fellow athletes grew resentful, and one of them, so in envy, murdered her. But Athena took pity on her favourite and turned the dead girl into a myrtle tree.
It sounds familiar. Doesn’t it? Have you ever noticed that we are nuts if we want to play against men? Or delusional if we dream of equal opportunity? Myrsine’s myth is one of the first examples of a patriarchal system. In Sardinia, the myrtle plant is called ‘Sa Murta’, a feminine noun faithfully to the myth. According to archaeologists, men and women of the Nuragic period would have much to teach us today about equality. In Sardinia, the prehistoric woman had an active role in society. So much so that they hunted, painted the walls and waged war, demolishing the vision that relegated women to a non-existent role in a patriarchal society.
With Mirta tapestry, by using a conceptual approach, Trevisan breaks out of the medium and uses it as a narrative device to tell an alternative story of the contemporary world and society. The story is one of every woman out there—the story we dare to dream of. And to tell this story, she decided to insert narrative elements taken from the Sardinian land, such as the four delicate blossoming Myrtle flowers.
Mirta is depicted naked. The female body is still a battleground for feminist debate and protest. If we cannot see a woman naked without viewing her sexually, we are still only viewing her through a male gaze; we have internalised the patriarchy.
The mask and earring recall the Mamuthones, one of the typical masks of the Mamoiada’s carnival. Their faces are covered with a black mask made from pear wood, characterised by rough features. They wear dark sheep skins and carry noisy bells on their back and bronze bells on their Chest. Even if the origins of the Carnival of Mamoiada remain obscure, this carnival has strong ties with the cycle of death and the rebirth of nature. In this sense, Mirta portrays the end of the patriarchal system and the spring of humanity.