Rosamaría Bolom
Immigrant, feminist, transdisciplinary artist, and cultural worker. Throughout her artistic and personal journey, she has discovered that art and community are the pillars of her path. Pillars that have led her to delve deeper into the concept of human dignity and what it means to be a woman in times of globalization.
ANTI-PATRIARCHAL INSTALLATION
ANTI-patriarchal. A Demonstration Against the System
2025
Charcoal and acrylic on recycled cardboard, painting, metal cans, wire, wooden sticks
Installation
Patriarchy is a political system disguised as religion, morality, and tradition. Beneath these disguises, it is a political order—a form of exploitation in which men benefit from the labor of women, and where violence is used to maintain control and inequality. Patriarchy manifests not only as physical violence, but also as symbolic violence—the kind that normalizes and justifies the subordination of women.
— Rita Segato, 2022
This artwork is an anti-patriarchal demonstration in the form of an art installation. It consists of 32 human silhouettes created from photographs submitted by individuals who wished to take part in this symbolic protest. The poses and clothing of the figures were drawn and painted directly onto recycled cardboard boxes from bicycle packaging. These participants become banners that openly defy the patriarchal system.
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With this installation, Bolom aims to express the plurality of voices and forms of resistance that confront patriarchal ideologies—ideologies that naturalize hatred and normalize violence.
The use of cardboard and other recycled materials reflects on the extractive systems of deforestation, land appropriation, knowledge theft, environmental pollution, and labor exploitation—systems where both natural resources and people, especially women, are treated as commodities to be exploited and discarded. This highlights the structural violence of patriarchy.
At the same time, cardboard—a material commonly used in protests—becomes a symbol of resistance. It redefines fragility, echoing both the vulnerability of life and the environment. The facelessness of the silhouettes removes individual identity, emphasizing the collective experience of resistance. It allows viewers to see themselves among the protesters, who demand the universal right to a dignified life in harmony with community, nature, and the environment—free from violence and oppression.
Some of the silhouettes were created directly from the submitted photographs; others were produced in collaboration with Otroas Feminismoas, a collective of migrant women who, since 2018, have worked to make visible in Finland the struggles against patriarchy in Latin America.
This demonstration is also a call to raise our voices, to break the silence, and to demand an end to crimes against humanity: the genocide being carried out in Gaza by Israel; the atrocities and repression in Afghanistan, Sudan, Syria, Yemen, Ethiopia, Congo, and Ukraine; and the extreme violence and persecution faced by Indigenous peoples across Latin America.
¡Otro mundo es posible!
Another world is possible!
THE CALL
BUILD AN ANTI-PATRIARCHAL INSTALLATION
WITH ME!!!
​With the intention of continuing to create art in community and imagining that other worlds are possible, I invite you to participate in an “anti-patriarchal demonstration”, which will take place at the Arktikum in Rovaniemi.
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From October to December, a group of cardboard silhouettes will demonstrate against the patriarchal system in the Valo gallery, forming an artistic installation that shows the plurality of voices and forms of resistance against ideologies of hate. The installation will recreate the collective struggle for a dignified life free from violence, intolerance, and death—everywhere in the world.
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This installation emerges from my reflections on collective work, in the company of Otroas Feminismoas, with whom we have woven spaces for encounters and exchanges of experiences, sentipensar (1), seeds (practices) of digna rabia (2) to blossom into a community based on buen vivir (3), mutual care, radical tenderness (4), and collective embodiment (5). It will be part of the research project “Artivism on Edges – Art, Activism, and Gendered Violence.”
How to participate:
Send a photo of yourself demonstrating against the system. You can raise your fist, your megaphone, your scarf, hold up your sign with your slogan/demand, or simply stand in the position your body would take if you were in a demonstration like this. I will use the photo to draw, paint, and cut out your silhouette in cardboard, along with any objects you hold. Through this silhouette, you will symbolically take part in this installation.
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If you prefer, you can blur your face in the photo. The silhouettes I draw will have no facial features—only the same clothing, body posture, and any items you hold. You can be alone or accompanied, but it is important that your full body is visible. Fill out the form at google forms or zoho forms, and send your photo no later than April 30th. Deadline extended until May 15
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In August, together with Otroas Feminismoas, we will organize a workshop to create protest signs that will be part of the installation and to share experiences and reflections on practices (seeds) brought from Abya Yala territories that contribute to resisting the patriarchal system in Finland.
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Join this demonstration and be part of this dissident installation.
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Let’s show together that art and community are necessary tools to fight patriarchy and its ideologies today.
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Some key concepts:
(1) Sentipensar: A term coined by Saturnino de la Torre (1997) in his creativity class at the University of Barcelona, defined as “the process through which we make thought and feeling work together (…) it is the fusion of two ways of interpreting reality, combining reflection and emotional impact, until they converge in a single act of knowledge—feeling and thinking at the same time.”
(2) Digna Rabia (Dignified Rage): A concept promoted by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) that expresses a combination of indignation and resistance in the face of injustice. It refers to the rage born from oppression, inequality, and violence, but which does not turn into destructive hatred. Instead, it becomes an organized and principled struggle for dignity and justice.
(3) Buen Vivir (Living Well, Collective Well-being): In Quechua Sumak Kawsay and in Aymara Suma Qamaña, this term comes from the Andean Indigenous worldviews of Latin America, particularly from Ecuador and Bolivia. It refers to a way of life in harmony with the community, nature, and surroundings—moving away from the individualism and consumerism of the capitalist model.
(4) Radical Tenderness: A living manifesto written by Dani d’Emilia and Daniel B. Chávez, members of La Pocha Nostra. It is a poetic exercise of resistance and a transfeminist tool to address colonialism, machismo, and other internalized violences in our bodies, communities, and interpersonal relationships.
(5) Collective Embodiment (Acuerpamiento Colectivo): A practice we are developing in Finland, inspired by Lorena Cabnal, an Indigenous Maya-Xinca community feminist. She defines acuerpar as: “the personal and collective action of our bodies, outraged by the injustices suffered by other bodies, who self-organize to provide each other with political energy to resist and act against multiple patriarchal, colonialist, racist, and capitalist oppressions. (…) Acuerparnos gives us closeness and revitalization, allowing us to recover joy without losing indignation.”
About me:
I am Rosamaría. My artistic name is Bolom, which means jaguar/feline in the Tzotzil language. I am an immigrant, a feminist, an interdisciplinary artist, and a cultural worker. Throughout my artistic and personal journey, I have found that art and community are the pillars that hold everything together.
This path began in the year 2000, and two years later, it took a decisive turn thanks to an educational project that connected me with women and children in Zapatista communities in southeastern Mexico. It was there that the children gave me the name Bolom. Later, when I crossed the Atlantic and settled in Finland, I had experiences that deeply shaped and enriched my reflection on what it means to be an immigrant woman in times of globalization—as well as the need to create art in community.​
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