Ana Mendieta, his name is like a magic formula. It is sufficient to give rise to the image of a woman, brunette, long hair in the wind, the more often naked as a fairy of the wood. She lives in nature and nature lives. She lies in the water, mermaid motionless under the stream, clear as innocence ( Creek , July 1974, San Felipe Creek, Oaxaca, Mexico, Super 8, color, silent). She lies on the earth, on an ancient tomb of the aztecs and flowers spring from her body and make reborn, as in the legends ( Imagen de Yagul , 1973-2018 photography, color photography). She left the loose soil and the imprint of his body remained, feminine symbol, the symbol of life itself, like a sand castle being overrun by the sea ( Ochun , 13 October 19981, Key Biscayne, Florida, video, colour, sound). Sometimes, his body is covered with rocks, and the sculpture becomes a mastaba human ( Burial Pyramid , August 1974, Yagul, Mexico, Super 8, color, silent). Sometimes, it is nothing more than a silhouette with red glowing against the black trunk of the “tree of life” whose branches are divided into two arms stretched towards the sky ( Energy , 1975, 16 mm, color, silent).
Woman of fire and creature of air, Ana Mendieta is a legend of the art “postwar”. It has reinvented itself as a phoenix, a poet of the Body art and Land art, performance and sculpture.
Woman of fire and creature of air, Ana Mendieta is a legend of the art “postwar”. It has reinvented itself as a phoenix, a poet of the Body art and Land art, performance and sculpture. Sometimes, the message body is violent, bloodthirsty, archaic, when it covers his body supple as an acrobat with the blood of the sacrifices distant ( Blood Inside Outside , July 1975, Old Man’s Creek, Sharon Center, Iowa, Super 8, color, silent). Sometimes the blood oozes gently from his young forehead, between his dark hair and straightened, running down on her cheeks as a Christ to the torment or a strong warrior pre-columbian ( Sweating Blood , November 1973, Super 8, color, silent).
When his face becomes covered with blood, shivering: Ana Mendieta died on September 8, 1985, at the age of 36, falling 34 floors from his apartment in Greenwich Village, where she lived with her husband, the sculptor of minimalist Carl Andre. This is one of the controversial taboo of the item there is such freshness and such a tension in the work of this artist. Stigma? Born in 1948 in the “haute bourgeoisie” of Cuba, sent to its backup in the United States, being mistreated in a catholic school in retrograde in Iowa who practice the corporal punishment and confinement. All of these films, extraordinary, sensual, heart-rending are assembled like a bunch of ghosts. Unforgettable experience.
“Ana Mendieta – The time and the story cover me up”, the Jeu de Paume, 1, place de la Concorde (Ier). Tel.: 01 47 03 12 50. Opening hours: mar. from 11h to 21h, sea. the dim. from 11h to 19h. Closed the lun. Until 27 jan. Catalogue: “Ana Mendieta, The time and the story cover me up”, under the direction of Lynn Lukas and Howard Oransky version of the Game of Palm, 272p., 55€.
