Giclée print, 116 x 174 cm, Städtische Sammlung Erlangen
Milena Wojhan's Lupa initially looks like any ordinary portrait photograph we are familiar with. What is unusual about this picture, however, are the six naked breasts protruding from the artist's open suit jacket. From the Artemis of Ephesus of the Greeks to the Minakshi of Hinduism and the Mama Allpa of the Incas, many-breasted or breastfeeding figures have been known since antiquity.
With the help of a six-breasted breast plate, made in cooperation with make-up artist Maxi Schwarzkopf, Milena Wojhan transforms herself into the mythical figure of Lupa, the she-wolf from the Roman legend who suckled Romulus and Remus, the later founding rulers of Rome. However, there is also another version of this story, in which a prostitute rather than a she-wolf takes care of the two children. Their nursery would therefore not have been a wolf's den, but a so-called “lupanar”, a common name for brothels in ancient Rome. Although it does not seem far-fetched that a prostitute took care of two orphans, the story of the selfless animal wet nurse has prevailed over the tale of a woman on the lower fringes of society at the time.
The work was donated by the artist to the Städtische Sammlung Erlangen.
Jacqueline Roscher und Nora Wolf
