BEFORE AND AFTER, 2015

BIO

■ Monica Mura (Cagliari, Italy,1979). Interdisciplinary artist and performer. She grew and studied in Italy where she obtained her title of Dottoressa magistrale in D.A.M.S., Discipline dell’Arte, della Musica e dello Spettacolo with Speciality in Multimedia Language by the University of Torino. Her work has been selected for national and international individual and collective exhibitions: Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum of Madrid, MAC Museum of Contemporary Art of A Coruña, Museum of Pontevedra, House of Arts of Vigo, San Paio de Narla Fortress Museum (Spain), Sala Dogana – Palazzo Ducale, Palazzo Grillo of Genova (Italy), José Malhoa Museum of Caldas da Raihna (Portugal), amongst others. Standing out among her more recent individual exhibitions is Who(se) are you?, a multi-sensorial route through the milestones of her artistic research on power and control, that shows the evolution of the reflection on memories, genders and identities from the paradigm of Intersectionality, in the Compañía Church of Santiago de Compostela in 2018. She has been invited to carry out her action projects in venues of recognized prestige such as the XX Biennial of Art of Cerveira, 2018, the Gaiás Museum Centre of the Cidade da Cultura of Galicia, 2018, and the Museu Jose Malhoa, Caldas da Raihna, 2015. In 2018-2019 she participated in different performances directed by the artist Esther Ferrer in the Palace of Velázquez of the Reina Sofía National Museum Arts Centre, Madrid. She is member of the MAV Women in the Visual Arts Association, and has participated in projects of fight against gender violence and to promote the visibility of women in cultural production (Violence Zero, Deputación of Pontevedra, curated by Paula Cabaleiro, No more dyed bedsheets, Concello of Ribadavia, MMM Mujeres Mirando Miujeres (Women Watching Women), Cultur3 Club, V National Fair of Artists, Gijón, Be present, be visible, ARTSevilla, International Meeting of Contemporary Art, Seville, Spain, No una di meno, Tonio Theatre, Lanusei, Italy). Her work is present in public and private collections, such as the Provincial Museum of Lugo and the Museum of Contemporary Art Florencio de la Fuente of Huete. At present, she lives and works setting bridges between Italy and Spain.

AWARDS AND MENTIONS

She has received different recognitions, awards, scholarships and residences (Special Mention Exile, Galerías VII, La Cárcel, (Galleries VII, The Prison), Centre of Creation, Segovia, 2019, Kaldarte No-nexo, Caldas de Reis, 2019, I Residence MAC Museum of Contemporary Art Florencio de la Fuente, Huete, Cuenca, 2019, Mujeres que cortan y pegan, Miradas en femenino (Women that cut and paste, Glances in Feminine, Mulafest, Ifema Madrid, 2018, 12 miradas Riverside (12 Looks Riverside), cultural action programme, curated by Carlos Quintàns, Creative Laboratory Vilaseco, 2017). She has presented her interdisciplinary projects (photography, audible landscapes, videos, installations, actions, delegate performances, digital art, net art, web art, life art) extensively through lectures in conferences and festivals such as the III International Conference Re-Think the Museums, (Thyssen- Bornemisza National Museum of Madrid), Conference of Gender, Museums, Art and Migration (Provincial Museum Network of Lugo), the WOS Festival x SON Estrella Galicia, (Cidade da Cultura of Galicia), “Páxina Par” II Meeting on Architecture and Literature (Eugenio Granell Foundation), “Acción Spring (t)” IV Action Art Congress, UCM Madrid,“CO(M)XÉNERO” Permanent Seminar on Communication and Gender (USC Santiago de Compostela), Spain.

HIRING CONTACT

Manager: Freelance (+34 637918093 )

+ info: monicamura.art@gmail.com

GROUP

Independent artist

NETWORKS

BEFORE AND AFTER, 2015

BEFORE AND AFTER, restoring the natural order

Mixed media (quadratic 50 x 50 cm each printed photograph on silk, hand-operated with pigment and golden threads / heartbeat sound landscape, video 1920 x 1080, codecs h 264 duration 8 min 30 s, audio 2 cannels / performance, aging self care and control action in circular format, duration 20 min / installation, gold frame and folding table with pigments and gold leaf, red lipstick, variable measures).

Before and After fits into a highly significant context: designed in 2015, it anticipated the emergence of mobile applications developed to automatically generate highly realistic facial changes, such as the well-known FaceApp, launched in early 2017. This work anticipates a historical context marked by the massive construction of a self that is far from reality and subject to a constant search for aesthetic perfection and eternal youth, also driven by the use of smartphone filters. With this work, the artist uses photo editing programs to age: instead of becoming younger, she projects herself into the future as an act of rebellion against the acceptance of imposed aesthetic norms. Her face is divided in two and represents a first and an after that restores the natural order of things, whereas the second half shows a body marked by the passing of time that has not yet taken place.

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