آنا مندييتا
安娜门迭塔
アナ·メンディエタ
Ана Мендьета

source: coilhousenet

Ana Mendieta (18 November 1948 – 8 September 1985) was a Cuban-American interdiscplinary artist. From 1972 to 1985, she produced numerous films, videos, site-specific installations, prints, drawings, sculptures, organic assemblage pieces, and performances. From Wiki:

Much of Mendieta’s work may be considered strongly feminist by some; it is in essence autobiographical. One theme in her early performance art was violence against the female body. Later, Mendieta focused on a spiritual and physical connection with the land […] which typically involved carving her imprint into sand or mud, making body prints or painting her outline or silhouette onto a wall. During the last 2 years of her life she started creating “objects”, mostly permanent sculptures and drawings. It was her intention to retain the connection with nature via the vibrations of the natural elements she continued to use in the works.

Her “earth-body art” is a fusion of two movements: earth art and body art. “I have been carrying on a dialogue between the landscape and the female body (based on my own silhouette)… I am overwhelmed by the feeling of having been cast from the womb (nature). Through my earth/body sculptures I become one with the earth… I become an extension of nature and nature becomes an extension of my body…”

With her Silueta series (perhaps her best known work), Mendieta sculpted the female body, or its imprint, from blood, earth, wood, gunpowder, flowers, leaves, weeds, sand, her own flesh. These imprints were then photographed or captured with Super-8 film.

Mendieta was born in Havana. In 1961, aged thirteen, she was exiled from Cuba along with her older sister, Raquelin. Her parents, vocal opponents of the revolutionary government, decided it was not safe for their girls to stay. The Mendieta sisters relocated to Iowa, where they were shuffled in and out of various government institutions and foster homes. Conditions were harsh and sometimes downright abusive. Beatings, isolation, bullying, etc. Mendieta persevered. When she was 17, her mother and brother rejoined in the States. By then, her father was in a Cuban prison, and she would not see him again for many years.

Mendieta went to college, earning her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Iowa in 1969, an MA in Painting, and eventually an MFA in Intermedia. In her early twenties, she abandoned more traditional modes of artistic expression, saying “the turning point in art was in 1972, when I realized that my paintings were not real enough for what I want the image to convey and by real I mean I wanted my images to have power, to be magic.”

Earth Goddess, early 80s. “There is no original past to redeem; there is the void, the orphanhood […] There is above all the search for origin.” Ana Mendieta

Over the course of her brief but prolific career, she lived and worked predominantly in NYC, but also spent time creating works in Mexico, Italy, even her homeland of Cuba. Themes of rape, revolution and blood dominated her early work, then she moved on to more abstract feminine themes, with pieces that explored the boundaries of humanity with nature, personal identity and universal belonging.

She was, according to accounts from friends, family and colleagues, a passionate and feisty young woman with a lot of ambition and forward momentum. She could be self-absorbed and difficult, but also capable of heartfelt displays of affection and gratitude to her loved ones.

She died on this day in 1985 after falling from the open window of an apartment on the 34th floor of a building in Greenwich Village. The only possible witness to her death was her husband, famed minimalist sculptor Carl Andre, who she had married eight months earlier. An affluent, accomplished darling of the museum circuit in NYC, Andre was tried for murder, and eventually acquitted in 1987. His lawyer described Mendieta’s death as accidental, perhaps a suicide.

However, police investigators and journalists, as well as dozens of Mendieta’s outspoken friends, remain unconvinced. A doorman on the street testified that he heard Ana screaming “no, no, no” in the moments before her death. Pleading, he said. Andre later made contradictory statements to those he gave detectives who came to his home in the wee hours of the morning after he called 911. There were scratch marks on Andre’s face and arms and signs of a struggle in the apartment.

Several posthumous Mendieta curations over the past decade have done much to mend the huge rift that opened up in NYC cultural circles in response to the shocking nature of her death, and the subsequent, supposed whitewashing of Andre’s reputation. After viewing the Whitney’s 2004 retrospective of Mendieta’s work, her colleague and teacher, John Perreault, said:

You can tell that Ana Mendieta is about to make it into art history: her last name only is on the cover of the dramatic, blood-red catalogue that accompanies the new survey of her art now at the Whitney.

When I saw that, it gave me shivers.

All is forgiven, Art World. She broke a lot of boundaries; she broke a lot of rules. Her shocking death for a time divided the art world, but now we can be healed.

…Right?
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source: zazzetounmindblogspot

Su cuerpo y su arte forman un todo.
Ana Mendieta pasó su niñez en la isla de Cuba, hasta que el 1961, después de estallar la revolución cubana, sus padres, mediante la operación Peter Pan enviaron en EE.UU.. Esta fue una operación organizada por grupos católicos nordamericans que tenía como finalidad evaquar niños católicos de Cuba para ahorrarlos las supostes desgracias del ateísmo comunista. Ya en EE.UU., Ana Mendieta y su hermana Raquelín Mendieta pasaron bastante meses a un campamento y de aquí fueron a parar a un orferinat a Iowa donde Ana fue maltratada por las monjas que lo regentaban. Más tarde fue dada en adopción en diferentes ocasiones, pasando de familia en familia.

Este acontecimiento provocó un fuerte impacto emocional en Ana Mendieta que marcó no sólo su traiectòria vital sino también su obra. El 1972 Ana Mendieta se graduará de primeras en la universidad de Iowa y el 1977 pasará a especializarse en Arte Visual y Multimedia con Nam June Paik o Vito Acconci.

Ya desde el suyos inicios, a principios de los 70, Ana Mendieta entenderá el arte como un tipo de reflexión personal que muestra y permite acceder, no obstante, a algo universal. Para llevar adelante esta reflexión, Ana Mendieta tomará ideas y recursos expresivos de diferentes corrientes, como el Fluxus, Land Arte, el arte conceptual, el movimiento antigal·lerista, así como técnicas diversas como la fotografía, el videoart, la instalación o el Body Arte. De acuerdo con las premisas estéticas de estos movimiento, las suyas son obras efímeras, que sólo han restado testimoniadas a través de videos y fotografías, de poca emprenta en la natura y que manifiestan siempre un gran respeto hacia la natura sobre la cual reflexionan.

“Mi arte es la forma en que restablezco los lazos que me unen al universo. Es un regreso a la fuente materna. Me convierto en una extensión de la naturaleza y la naturaleza en una extensión de mi propio cuerpo. Este acto obsesivo de reafirmar mis lazos con la tierra es en realidad una reactivación de creencias primigenias, una fuerza femenina omnipresente, la imagen posterior de estar encerrada en el útero, es una manifestación de mi sed de ser”
Ana Mendieta (1948—1985).
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source: artofolioblogspot

Alegerea mea se intinde la Ana Mendieta ca opera de arta, punand problema cuantificarii unei opere. Ce este o opera si pana unde se intinde ea? Este cazul seriilor ce cuprind variatiuni din aceeasi familie sau a unei singure picturi de pilda Strigatul de Munch ce se “livreaza” exprimand solitar mesajul creatorului. De multe ori autorul organizeaza si reorganizeaza in functie de evolutia propriei subiectivitati operele create, revenind asupra lor sau modificandu-le sensul pana cand poate declara opera incheiata. Ana Mendieta a pribegit in lume expulzata de presiuni politice, folosind ca unealta de exprimare si dialog singura resursa ce ni se da: trupul. Privesc toate performance-urile ei ca pe o serie unica cu diferite fatete iar pe ea insasi o consider o forma de arta vie in continua evolutie de-a lungul traseului vietii sale, opera terminata odata cu moartea sa in 1985.

Ana Mendieta – Sandwoman (1983)

Fixitatea iconografica claseaza toate performance-urile sale in seria de lucrari “ Earth Body: Sculpture and Performance, 1972–1985”expozitie retrospectiva catalogata la Whitney Museum din New York in 2004. Apare odata cu aceste performance-uri un nou tip de discurs in care conceptualul converge in afectiv, creind un dialog profund la nivel subconstient uzand de unelte mai putin obisnuite precum momentul istoric contemporan ei in care miscarea feminista atrasese atentia asupra siluetei feminine adaugand astfel complexitate si profunzime noosferica mesajului sau. Materialitatea operei se inscrie astfel intr-un discurs tip “Totul vine de la Sine”in care libertatea expresiei este dirijata ambivalent atat din afara (evenimente socio-politice) cat si dinauntru ( trup/pamant/viziune) creind astfel urme autentice – repere culturale.

Estetica expresiei sale se inscrie in definitia modernismului conforma lui Baudelaire : tranzitoriul si efemerul ca flash-uri ce coloreaza organismul social punand probleme precum originea profund terestra a omului conectata de expresivizarea latinescului “memento mori” , aruncand o noua lumina asupra creatiei, din perspectiva feminina, conectata metasomatic la o natura pe care arta de pana atunci a idealizat-o intr-atat incat i-a pierdut din vedere sensul original, asistam la o intoarcere vitala asupra sinceritatii omului nud in relatie cu spatiul. Mesajul Anei Mendieta este in raport direct cu expulzarea sa din tara natala dupa ce parintii sai s-au opus miscarii revolutionare, redefinind problema originii, anistorica independenta de organisme sociale si interdependente politice, compromisuri spirituale – lucrarile sale creeaza porti catre un moment in care libertatea autoconstienta era un nutrient esential al firii ciclice iar discursul era orientat ritualic.

ANA MENDIETA

Seriile de siluete repun in discutie imaginea zeitei si a idealului ca fiind paradoxal o substanta materiala fragila prin perenitatea sa misterioasa, steganografiind coduri ale firescului captivitatii in alteritatea libertatii.