Galerie Lelong is pleased to announce an evening dedicated to the films and videos of Ana Mendieta at the Harvard Film Archive, celebrating Mendieta as a prolific filmmaker and pioneer in the medium. Curated by Becca Voelcker and Haden Guest, Mirage. The Films of Ana Mendieta presents twelve of Mendieta's films and videos that engage with themes of displacement, absence, and diaspora. Voelcker says about the selected works, "Like letters painted on the wall in Blood Writing, Mendieta’s films are elliptical, uppercase declarations of individuality and tolerance—as urgent today as at the time of their making." The works connect with Mendieta's well-known Siluetas series, photographic investigations of body and landscape, which are deeply rooted in Mendieta's personal experiences as one of many Cuban exiles flown to the United States during Operation Pedro Pan between 1960-62. Films such as Mirage (1974) affirm what Mendieta asseverates about her work: "Having been torn from my homeland (Cuba) during my adolescence, I am overwhelmed by the feeling of having been cast out from the womb (Nature). . . My art is. . . a return to the maternal source.”
The event coincides with Colombian artist Doris Salcedo's solo exhibition at the Harvard Art Museum, The Materiality of Mourning, which also delves into the experiences of the marginalized and disempowered. Both artists provoke discussions on navigating oppressive power structures, making the personal political, and expressing the nuances of human emotion amidst identity formation.
The screening includes a conversation with Raquel Cecilia, Mendieta’s niece and film archivist for the Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, and Mary Schneider Enriquez, Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at Harvard Art Museums, moderated by Haden Guest, Director, Harvard Film Archive.
This event is free and open to the public. For more information, including the full list of films that will be screened, please click here.