Madre (Mother) is a work that celebrates the diversity of Bolivian culture, focusing on the representation of women. Using images from the photographer’s own family archive, the project takes a critical stance that questions both her personal and national history, as well as the place women have been granted in it. This series lays out a narrative through a multiplicity of bodies, symbols and times that subverts religious icons, relating them to the indigenous culture. Likewise, the interspersed documentary or staged photographs mean that new Bolivian identities can be added in the first and third person.

Marisol Méndez’s images include indigenous and mestizo women, reinterpreted religious figures, retouched family photographs, rediscovered Andean traditions, and carefully staged portraits. The rich variety of images invites us to question the white, patriarchal canon that prevails in the representation of women in Bolivia, alongside the presence of the class struggle and religious influence.

Born in Bolivia in 1991, Marisol Méndez is a photographer who uses a wide range of visual languages to tell a story. She holds a degree in Audiovisual Communication from the University of Palermo (Buenos Aires) and a Masters in Fashion Photography from the University of the Arts in London. She has exhibited in Europe, Argentina and Bolivia, and her work has been published in The British Journal of Photography, Paper Journal, Balam or GUP Magazine. In 2021 she received the PHmuseum Photography Grant New Generation award for her project Madre and in 2020 she was one of the recipients of Photolucida’s Michael Reichmann’s Project grant. She currently works as a teacher and freelance photographer developing her projects between Cochabamba and Buenos Aires.

Marisol Méndez (Bolivia, 1991)
Madre

2022 Edition
Open Call winner
Outdoor installation
Venue: Containers of the Old Port
Collaborator: Picter