Terra abrecaminhos: SESC Pompeia, São Paulo

19 September 2023 - 21 February 2024
Works
Overview
An unprecedented exhibition by Cuban-American artist Ana Mendieta (1948-1985) featuring 21 film-performances recorded on Super 8, 16 mm and Betacam between 1972 and 1981, and photographs of a self-performing nature. Two exhibitions in one, the project also features a group exhibition with contemporary artists, like Panmela Castro, from different generations whose work dialogues (in)directly with the artist's work.

Curated by Daniela Labra, assistant curated by Hilda de Paulo and assisted by Maíra de Freitas, the exhibition "Ana Mendieta: Silhueta em Fogo | terra abrecaminhos" (Ana Mendieta: Silhouette on Fire | path-breaking earth) presents an overview of the life and work of one of contemporary art's most emblematic artists. Her works materialize in different aesthetic media, being original and forceful, making the artist a pioneer in the investigation of poetics relating to the body, ecology, archetypal femininity, ancestry, healing, ecology, criticism and performativity. In addition to the extensive conceptual perspective linked to the making of her works, Mendieta has explored other themes in languages such as photography, wood and clay sculptures, drawings, rural interventions and actions in domestic spaces.

Multiple and intercultural, her works have become a reference for artists of different generations. The themes they reflect on are still unfolding today in extensive artistic experimentation and transdisciplinary practices. This is how the exhibition "terra abracaminhos" was born. The show features artists from different generations, "daughters of the 'mestiza' and the border diaspora, as philosopher Gloria Anzaldúa thought in the 1980s". The works of the invited artists are presented in various media, including face-to-face performances, whose aesthetic proposals, once again, have points of contact with those of Ana Mendieta.

Panmela is participating on the exhibition with her triptych "The Bride", her sculpture "Self esteem and Lucidity", and her new sculptures "Dress", "Head of Saint Antônio", "Snail" and "Pill, from the "Affective Objects" series. Besides, Panmela will also show two performances: "Cult Against Fuckboys" and "Delicate Act".

Installation Views