Artemisia vulgaris is a banner that bears a reproduction of a painting by the Italian artist Artemisia Gentileschi, entitled “Judith and her maid” and which illustrates the biblical passage where Judith’s beheading of Holofernes occurs. In such a passage, their courage to infiltrate enemy territory to kill the leader of this army in their sleep is narrated. Two women stand out when supporting each other with evidence of the crime in hand: a sword and the basket with the general’s head.

 

An image of two women who are at risk together, an image of sorority exposed during the carnival, a period in which the numbers of sexual violence against women increase by 90% according to data from 2017 of the federal government’s National Secretariat for Policies for Women.

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Another element is the name of the work: Artemisia vulgaris is popularly known as artemisia, chamomile-of-the-field, wormwood, fire-weed, weed-of-john, queen-of-herbs, among others. A medicinal plant used by women in the treatment of urogenital diseases, the consumption of its tea in high doses, however, facilitates the processes of interrupting an unwanted pregnancy.