"Māter" is about another way of connecting with our surroundings, taking into account that all of it - that which we take for granted - is political, constructed, and has evolved from another context very different from the one we now inhabit.

Through the multiplicity of meaning embedded in the word māter, the exhibition attempts to expand the horizons of how motherhood, mothering and procreation may be understood along binary, non-binary, human, and non-human lines.

The semantic breadth of māter frees us from the many burdensome preconceptions around the figure of the mother. This shift liberates motherhood from its monolithic conception, and from the notion that there is a unique and desirable way of being a mother. Maternity begins to acquire many more nuances, encompassing ideas around care, nurture, protection, but also creation, procreation, and multiplication.

Within the exhibition, we explore several lines of work: the temporality and subjectivity of social and scientific knowledge in relation to the body and reproductive processes, and how this knowledge influences and is in turn influenced by the environment. The politics of religion, which affects the way we understand what surrounds us and our consideration “of the other”. And finally, the alternative forms of mothering, non-anthropocentric, and their relationship with a non-patriarchal witchcraft related to care.

Each exhibition site harbours its own connections to maternity. The former Santo Spirito Hospital in Rabat was home to many acts of mothering-without-the-mother, and still houses a ruota or ‘foundling wheel’ in its walls. The “Provincial Maternity and Foundling House of Barcelona” (la Maternitat) mothered the mothers themselves, before occupying itself with nurturing their unwanted babies into childhood via state-of-the-art technology and novelty instruction.

Through the exhibition, we draw insight from the writings of Silvia Federici, which dissect the intersections of capitalism, patriarchy, and the exploitation of women's labour, especially within the historical context of women's subjugation and the early modern witch hunts. We attempt to critically examine the political dynamics of religions and their mechanisms of coercion and influence, whilst finding solace in the inclusive space of the witch’s coven, a space that facilitates the exploration of alternative understandings of ourselves, and each other.

Through "Māter", we defend mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers, as well as those who consciously opt for a different way of being. We refrain from passing judgement, directing scrutiny only toward societies that marginalise alternative forms of knowledge, and oppress those who forge their own paths, whilst serving as a platform for engaging in conversations surrounding contemporary feminist concerns.