Virgo, Vidua et Mater

Red satin ribbon, glue, red thread, wire, 2018

 

The title is a latin locution used in Middle-age (a period sadly infamous for witch purges), it  means that a woman should not exceed her traditional roles of virgin, widow and mother.

This work reflects on life and death of Marie-Josephte Corriveau, a Canadian woman accused to have killed her (violent) second husband by her own father, whom was first accused of his murder. 

Marie-Josephte Corriveau was hung in 1763 without any proof and her body was then placed in a human-shaped cage hanging from a tree for almost one month. 

After her death the whole story changed: her first husband (died by natural causes) and the second one became just two of the men killed by the “witch”: some people said she had killed seven husbands, and that her ghost still hunted the area around the tree.

The cage in where her body first rested travelled the world as a curiosity, and then ,recently, was finally bought by a Canadian museum. 

The work reflects on the manipulation of collective memory and the denigration of women in history: the story of Marie-Josephte is just one of the many turbid stories about witches, the only thing that remains of her is the cage and her bad reputation. We don’t even know if she was or wasn’t guilty, but she has been killed and accused of witchcraft by a patriarchal society, just because accusing a woman was easier that trying to prove her innocence.