Lili 2005. Neon and iron. 2.2 x 1.5 x 0.05 m.
Monique Bastiaans reinvents an ancestral idol, Lili, a symbol of fertility but also a terrifying divinity; in the Mig tower, that private space open to the public gaze, she constructs a contemporary divinity, between the astronomical and the earthly, a disturbing glimmer that reflects the sacred and the profane, that dishonored thing that is, in some measure, a medicinal substance, that amorous thing that appears to our exaggerated gaze as the radical other.
Fernando Castro Flórez 2005
The first anthropomorphic artistic evidence is found in feminine cultures: exclusively images of the mother goddess, a symbol of fertility.
In these cultures, whose starting point is the mythical past of the matriarchal origin of the world, the personification of Nature as Mother is represented under the title of the Great Goddess or in an explicitly anthropomorphic figure of an animistic nature.
The Paleolithic Venuses, as well as the later Neolithic female Magna Mater figures from the supernatural realm, symbolize the living Soul of the universe.
Today, as religions become more orthodox, the time has come to remember and reinvent an ancient idol that transcends religions.
Denia Castle, as a historical space and a territory of diverse cultures, is the perfect place. Located in La Torre del Mig, a private and hidden place, Lili manifests herself as a contemporary divinity, simultaneously primitive and futuristic.
A luminous and radiant being, joyful and free, who manifests himself intermittently and alternately displays his 'everyday' and sidereal appearance.
Because I am the first and the last.
I am the honored one and the disdained one.
I am the harlot and the sacred one.
I am the wife and the virgin.
I am the mother and the daughter.
I am my mother's limbs.
I am the barren one and many are her children.
I am the one whose wedding is grand,
but I have not taken a husband.
I am the midwife and the one who doesn't give birth.
I am the solace of the pains of childbirth.
I am the bride and groom,
and my husband fathered me.
I am my father's mother and my husband's sister,
That is my offspring…
Listen to me.
I am the dishonored one and the great one.
Fragment of the Nag Hammadi documents, 2nd century.