Feminism in Passagem (1979):

clay body and symbol in Brazilian art

Abstract

The performance Passagem (1979) marks a decisive point in the trajectory of Celeida Tostes (1929–1995), a ceramist, artist, and art educator whose pedagogical and community-based practice inscribes clay as an operator of memory, identity, and collectivity. In this work, the artist mobilizes the symbolic potential of earth—present in creation myths—as a matrix of connection between body, matter, and feminine subjectivity. Drawing on the reflections prompted by this experience, the article adopts a qualitative and interdisciplinary methodology that articulates creative process, feminine symbolisms, and the phenomenology of working with clay, in dialogue with analytical psychology and Jungian-oriented art therapy. It then situates the work within the Brazilian context of the 1970s, a period marked by the military dictatorship, the late emergence of feminism, and neoconcrete artistic vanguards, relating these aspects to Celeida’s practice. The article thus seeks to highlight the contemporary relevance of her performance in light of current readings on the feminine, such as those of bell hooks, and of critical perspectives on the structures of the art market and dominant cultural narratives.