Nina Dotti

Nina Dotti
Nina Dotti character.
Created by	Andreina Fuentes
Information
Title	Nina Dotti

Nina Dotti is a character created and interpreted by Venezuelan-born conceptual and performance artist, Nina Fuentes.

In her role as Nina Dotti, Fuentes employs a multi-dimensional approach to critically exploring social, cultural and political issues confronting contemporary society.

Dotti was a multimedia, Miami-based contemporary artist. A pioneering artist in her native Venezuela working for the rights of the LGBT community, she has been described as a feminist artist. Her message is critical, intimate and personal. Her work is neo-conceptual, influenced by Marcel Duchamps, with a pop and surrealistic aesthetic. Her installations are characterized by the use of non-traditional materials and domestic items, making them particularly political.

Nina was interested in the representation of social stereotypes (especially feminist issues) and the defense of sexual minorities. This gave her the opportunity to assume an artistic alter-ego who would make a blunt statement regarding her identity: Nina Dotti would be her new name, inspired by Italian photographer Tina Modotti, who had to change her identity to work as an artist. This represented an analogy for what Nina had always stood for: equal rights, end of discrimination and the opportunity for people to be whoever they want to be. She signed her new work "Plataforma: Forma de hacer plata" (Money-making Platform) (2005) produced for the "Transito" NGO (2005) and inspired from the platform shoes used by transsexuals. That year, Nina performed the streets of Chicago wearing a wedding dress, during which symbolic blessings were given to both homosexual and heterosexual couples as a way to express equality.

"Pastel de Boda" (Wedding Cake) was presented in Miami's Hardcore Art Contemporary Spaces (HACS), in a performance in which Dotti would "marry" her crowd. This was followed by "Hot Flashes Bar", presented during the Arte Americas Art Fair in 2006 where Dotti shared her positive views of menopause with women in a bar, suggesting humor as a way to replace unhealthy medical treatment like hormone replacement therapy in what she called Humor Replacement Therapy, thus empowering women to face menopause as a normal part of life and experience a new kind of sexuality.