Inês Barracha is the artist responsible for the mighty girl who this year illustrates the annual summit, a celebration of all the challenges achieved by Chicas Poderosas around the world.
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We were partying, my sis was turning 30.
Already after hours, the friendship brought Mariana to the most lively porch of that September night. Almost like an apparition, that Girl, friend of a long time, but who had not seen for a long time, appeared, mighty!
Especially the powerful Mariana appeared in my life at a decisive time.
I do not know if it is the fate that signs these meetings, what is certain is that it was like hunger and desire to eat.
I said that the birth was coming soon, that I already felt the contractions of a creative pregnancy that had been growing in me since I moved away from the pencils, the brushes, the free scratches on the computer.
It carried an immense desire to throw out many imagined ideas, shapes, textures, intentions, sensations …
In 2005 he finished Painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts with a taste for something more challenging. I headed straight for Bournemouth in the UK, left there Master in 3D Digital Animation and entered the door that opened for Soho in London. A few years experience but many projects in post-production of ads and films, a universe that allowed new ramblings.
Quickly the Saudade that everyone can feel, but only the Portuguese gave the name, called me back to the sunny, affable land, to the family. It was time to come back with a bag full of new experiences, it was time to dream a place in the native land, time to see two beautiful daughters born (like all daughters, but these are ours!).
Now with two daughters, my Manel (who is so perfect all that I can not be), a house made by us …
Now after having given classes in various places, of various subjects and at various ages; now after having swum in communication design and interiors, inheritance of father and mother; now 5 years after I opened the red door of MODO, a neo-rural house of creation and artistic experimentations that I invented and gave of soul; now after many projects, some other community solidarity. Now that Ava is 9 and Lisa is 3, I came back to me.
I was feeding this pregnancy of ideas, the forms became more definite, well chubby was ready to give birth.
Mariana “The Poderosa” arrived on the porch just in time to help bring me to light. The power of the Girls also helped make me born, nothing more, not less than myself.
Sometimes a powerful woman, who I believe to be, even full of will and ability, also needs a hand!
It was this empowering hand that gave me the challenge I needed to free myself from the inertia that had gripped me.
With a deadline almost impossible, Chicas Poderosas by the intuited hand of Mariana Santos, made me an irrefutable proposal. To give face to three Brazilian women from three different cultures that would be the ambassadors of the project “a woman from Amazonia completely into her roots, a woman from the Northeast with that “air of grace” and the magic that one can feel in that region and a woman from São Paulo, representing a more cosmopolitan facet “. Knowing and representing identities, personalities, cultures is what fuels my creative imagination, how could I refuse !? It was the ticket I needed for my life.
I caught the challenge and soon others succeeded. From an early age I realised just how powerful all the girls’ hands are. This was the concept that inspired the image I created for the celebration of the five years of the Chicas Poderosas.
In an almost divinized figure arms flourish representing a determined and uncontrollably powerful versatile woman. She is a cheerful and communicative woman who celebrates many cultures, awakened and curious. It all starts from a pair of firm arms entwined like roots that support the past, the history, the identity. Reading the figure from left to right, a convinced hand rests on an invisible hip, it is the will to make it happen, the head erected without fear. The welcoming arm has tattooed love, which leads the intuition of feeling and extends to all of the open hand. The Girl has the power to communicate and connect the five continents in a single message and it is with the firmness of a pink force that binds the mind to the heart. A magical arm that dances embodies the mysterious and enchanting strand that seduces, enamoured and makes love. The Girl has a passion for the world, fights for just causes, for all and does not give up. Raises in the fingers the will of peace. With wisdom and wisdom the Girl has the power to teach and guide. Finally with skill and daring do not be afraid to lift the tip of any veil !!!
Without realising it, I turned myself into a Chica Poderosa and proudly will wear this “t-shirt”, and you?
“Your time is now!”
Inês Barracha
