An in-depth exploration of the work and destiny of Ana Mendieta, with numerous illustrations and previously unpublished contributions.
The monograph devoted the Cuban born, American artist Ana Mendieta at MO.CO. Panacée in 2023 brings together about one hundred works from over fifteen years of production (1968-1985). The exhibition explores in particular how the artist never ceased to reinvent herself, developing an original, ephemeral sculptural language, at times performative in act, nourished by her research into primitive myths and rock art. It focuses especially on revealing her relationship to the visible and the invisible, her way of rendering the unspeakable intelligible through the trace of the body, and how it relates to nature. It is not intended to be a retrospective show, but rather to celebrate the relevance of such political and vibrant contemporary work.
Accompanying the exhibition, this richly illustrated publication is introduced by Numa Hambursin and Álvaro Rodríguez Fominaya, in addition to unpublished texts by Géraldine Gourbe, Carla Guardiola Bravo and Rahmouna Boutayeb, as well as an interview of Raquel Cecilia Mendieta with Vincent Honoré.
In a brief yet prolific career, the Cuban-born artist Ana Mendieta (1948-1985) created groundbreaking work in photography, film, video, drawing, sculpture, and site-specific installations. Amongst the major themes in her work are exile, displacement, and a return to the landscape, which remain profoundly relevant today. Her unique hybrid of form and documentation, works that she titled "siluetas," are fugitive and potent traces of the artist's inscription of her body in the landscape, often transformed by natural elements such as fire and water.
