Teresa Margolles: Mundos

The Musée presents the first-ever solo show in Canada of works by Teresa Margolles, one of the foremost Mexican artists of her generation.

For over 30 years, Margolles has developed her practice in response to the endemic violence that ravages her country (violent deaths from the drug trade, marginalities and exclusions, feminicides and social injustice). The exhibition, Mundos, brings together works mainly created in this decade, along with pieces that have never been shown before. It includes sculptural and photographic installations, performative interventions and videos. Spare, yet powerfully moving, the work by Margolles reaches out and brings us into the world of those whose lives have been made invisible.

Biography

Teresa Margolles was born in 1963 in Culiacán, Sinaloa, in northwestern Mexico. She studied art, communications, and forensic medicine. In the early 1990s at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, she helped found the group SEMEFO; later, she worked independently. In 2009 she represented Mexico at the 53rd Venice Biennale and has participated in many other biennials and international exhibitions, with numerous solo shows in Mexico and Europe. Margolles is the recipient of many awards, including the 2012 Artes Mundi prize in Cardiff, the most prestigious award in the United Kingdom to an artist who engages with “the human condition, social reality and lived experience.”

Teresa Margolles, <i>Pista de baile del club “Mona Lisa”</i> [Dance floor from the “Mona Lisa“ nightclub], 2016 — Teresa Margolles, *Pista de baile del club “Mona Lisa”* [Dance floor from the “Mona Lisa“ nightclub], 2016 Colour print on cotton paper Transgender sex worker standing on the ruins of the dance floor of a demolished nightclub in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico 125 x 185 cm (framed) Courtesy the artist and Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich

Teresa Margolles, <i>Tela bordada</i> [Embroidered fabric], 2012 — Teresa Margolles, *Tela bordada* [Embroidered fabric], 2012 Traditional Mayan embroidery on cloth. Embroidered by Indigenous activists women from Guatemala (Lucy Andrea López, Silvia Menchú, Bonifacia Cocom Tambriz, María Josefina Tuy Churunel, Marcelina Cumes, Rosamelia Cocolajay, Yury Cocolajay, Alba Cocolajay and Cristina López). Previously in the morgue, the fabric absorbed the bodily fluids of a woman murdered in Guatemala City. 202 x 206 cm Collection of the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa Photo : NGC

Teresa Margolles, <i>36 Cuerpos</i> [36 Bodies], 2006 — Teresa Margolles, *36 Cuerpos* [36 Bodies], 2006 Installation, threads Remains of threads that, after the autopsy, were used to stitch the bodies of persons who have suffered a violent death. Each thread corresponds to a body. Variable dimensions Photo: Achim Kukulies Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich

Teresa Margolles, <i>Irrigación</i>, 2010 [Irrigation] — Teresa Margolles, *Irrigación*, 2010 [Irrigation] Single-channel video projection (Blu-Ray), colour, sound, 34 min 12 s, loop. Courtesy the artist and Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich

Teresa Margolles, <i>La Promesa </i>[The Promise], 2012 — Teresa Margolles, *La Promesa* [The Promise], 2012 Performance at the MAC, February 2017. Photo: Sébastien Roy

Teresa Margolles, <i>Mundos</i> [Worlds], 2016 — Teresa Margolles, *Mundos* [Worlds], 2016 Installation, neon sign from a former bar in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, loudspeaker, 87.5 x 522 x 20.5 cm Photo: Courtesy the artist and Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich

Installation: Teresa Margolles, <i>La Promesa</i>, 2012 — Installation: Teresa Margolles, *La Promesa*, 2012
Installation: Teresa Margolles, *La Promesa*, 2012

Installation: Teresa Margolles, La Promesa, 2012

Teresa Margolles, La Promesa, 2012. Sculptural block made of ground-up remains from a demolished house in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, 15-tonne version. The complete version of the work is composed of 45.76 tonnes of rubble produced by crushing all the materials used to build a house located on Puerto de Palos street, near Tres Jacales, in the Praderas de Oriente neighbourhood. The house was demolished in 11 days and the rubble was crushed in June 2012. Collection of the Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City. Site-specific installation commissioned by the MUAC, UNAM, with the support of the Ford Foundation Latin America in commemoration of its 50th anniversary