The monograph devoted to the Cuban-American artist Ana Mendieta (1948-1985) at MO.CO. Panacée 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.

The exhibition 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.

The eight rooms of MO.CO. Panacée are divided into seven chapters where paintings, videos, installations, sculptures, and drawings enter into conversation.The themes approached are those of transformation (from her first paintings to bodily alterations, or from the animistic performances to the first Silueta of 1973); the Siluetas and Fetish series ; the progression from a distinctly female figure to a stylized and universal representation; the hand in what it shapes and transforms; the elements, particularly earth, water, and fire; her relationship to primordial myths with the rock sculptures or the Venuses worked in sand or earth; as well as the works created in her atelier in Rome.

Ana Mendieta. Search for Origin is a rare opportunity to explore how the artist has constantly reinvented her art, in particular by constantly returning to her geographical, artistic, and cultural roots.

The exhibition includes a dozen of previously unseen works, including four of her paintings made between 1968 and 1970, the exclusive reconstruction of Untitled: Silueta Series, a 1978 installation, and a set of photographs, some of them recently discovered in September 2022.

Alongside the exhibition
The screening of the documentary Nature Inside, directed by Raquel Cecilia Mendieta, followed by a discussion during the "Jeudis MO.CO. Panacée" will allow us to discover key moments in the life and work of Ana Mendieta.

Under the artistic direction of Numa Hambursin, general director of the MO.CO.

https://www.moco.art/fr