Ana Mendieta: SILUETAS Y GESTOS

Thursday, May 27, 2021
8:30pm—9:45pm CT
FREE and open to the public

Location
Aurora Picture Show

Visitor Information
Space is limited: Reserve your FREE tickets

Aurora Picture Show, The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts, and the Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston co-present two outdoor screenings of rarely seen films by artist Ana Mendieta.

Cuban-American artist Ana Mendieta (1948-1985) made numerous films in dialogue with her pioneering performance, sculptural, and photographic work. Mendieta’s deeply personal work focuses on issues of identity, sexuality, spirituality, feminism, and cultural displacement. This program presents 10 films documenting performances using her body, land, and organic materials such as bird feathers, air, fire, water, and earth. The program also includes the short documentary Ana Mendieta, Nature Inside by the artist’s niece, Raquel Cecilia Mendieta. There will be two free outdoor screenings of this special program, on Tuesday May 25 and Wednesday May 26 (8:30pm). Advance RSVP is required, as are masks and social distancing at the event. In addition, on Thursday May 27 (1pm,) there will be an online conversation with Raquel Cecilia Mendieta and film curator/author Sally Berger about the work and legacy of Mendieta.

The films of Ana Mendieta are presented in the larger context of the performance program A Time for Action, running at the Blaffer Museum from May 23 – June 5, 2021. This survey of performance work is organized by invited curators Aisha Tida Abbassi, Outspoken Bean, Rivkah French, Julia Barbosa Landois, Jake Sandridge, and Sixto Wagan and will feature a wide array of experimental interdisciplinary actions.

Image credit: Ana Mendieta, Nature Inside, a film by Raquel Cecilia. Photo © The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, LLC