Carved into a side of a hill in the Botanical-Artistic Park is a sculpture of larger-than-life red vulva, designed by the Brazilian visual artist Juliana Notari, who named it Diva.
Notari designed this statue when she was a resident of the Art Power Plant, a culture center on the land where the Santa Terezinha sugarcane mill operated 1940-1990. The deserted mill, the history of slavery, and the conflict between the indigenous people and colonialism created scars and wounds in the land. She decided to showcase this wound in her art and raise the awareness of “the problematization of gender from a female perspective.”
It took almost 11 months and more than 20 people to create the statue, carve it into the hill, connect it with nature and into the earth. After it was ready on 2020 New Year’s Eve, it immediately sparked controversy between conservatives who hated it and liberals who adored and embraced it. In a coincidence, it was a day after the Brazilian President, Jair Bolsonaro, vowed that he would never legalize abortion in Brazil.
Notari is one of the few female artists showcasing her work in the park.
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