Artists
Argentina
Cecilia Mandrile
FIG Bilbao 2020
26.11.20 14.12.20
Fundación´ace para el Arte Contemporáneo is pleased to introduce Cecilia Mandrile, invited artist to ´ace representation at FIG Bilbao 2020 | International Printmaking and Art on Paper Festival in the beautiful city of Bilbao, Spain from November 26th to December 14, 2020.
During years of moving, Mandrile was performing and recording ephemeral installations, observing cities and their crevices through a portable reference: sight-less dolls. Several versions of a disguised self-portrait were printed on canvas and attached to objects found or kindly given in various locations. Carrying and curing objects in buses, stations, streets, airplanes, (the self and) the self-portrait was tinted by the crossing of borders. Revisiting the journey, photographs made evident how (even apparently unanimated) displaced subjects have individual responses to the new background imposed.
The process of translation has a double significance in the practice of migrant artists: translation as a means to move subjects/objects from one place or condition to another; translation as a technical means to articulate an image in order to interpret its behavior in changing contexts. Through the dual translation of photographic fragments, the artist proposes disjointed narratives rehearsing a dialogue between portable objects and found places.
Quitapenas : A Genealogy of Stateless Dolls
The making of prints has traditionally involved the displacement of visual information from a source (plate, file, numeric code) to a range of substrates (paper, canvas, wood, plastic, glass, clay), generating multiple images with new physical identities, each with their own sentient body, I believe. In current times when most sensorial interactions are paused through invisible frontiers, and touching is made believed as a death sentence, print processes remain at the core of creative practices, evidencing that the ubiquity of virtual communication coexists with the urge to engage with a tangible outcome.
In Latin America, it is a common practice for children to place tiny dolls under the pillow, tell them their worries, sorrow, fears, letting this tiny dolls do the worrying on their behalf and take the sorrow away. Exploring paper and porcelain as vulnerable matter, these Quitapenas mean tangible iterations of printed fragmented dolls that has wandered with me for over two decades, translated into ephemeral and resilient substrates via various technical processes and diverse geographies. Cut out, stitched, faded, broken apart and reconstructed along the journey several surviving pieces were rescued, assembled as new bodies, sorrow dolls that open up to a new decade of wandering and mending.
Cecilia Mandrile
1969|Argentina
Independent artist, liveas and works in New York City, USA
STUDIES
2004| PhD. University of the West of England, Bristol; UK
1997 | Master of Fine Arts. University of Maryland at College Park, USA
1991 | Bachelor of Fine Arts. Major: Printmaking, National University of Córdoba, Argentina
SOLO SHOWS
2018-2019 | The Desert Inside. Emilio Caraffa Fine Arts Museum and Fernando Bonfiglioli Museum, Córdoba, Argentina
2016 | Fragile Fragments. Prints Gallery. St John’s University, New York, USA
2015 | The Perfume of Absence. Five Points Gallery. Torrington, CT, USA
2014 |Solitary Objects, Collaborative Making. Bower Ashton Gallery, UWE, Bristol, UK
Quitapenas. Arten Gallery/International MegaPixel Print Festival. Budapest, Hungary.
AWARDS
2019-20 | Centre for Fine Print Research. Artist Fellowship. Bristol, UK
2015 | MET Merit Award. International Digital Art Triennial, Szekszard, Hungary
2014 | Excellence Award in Creative Research, University of New Haven, USA
2003 | City Museum of Art Acquisition Award. VII International Biennial of Graphic Art. Gyor, Hungary
2001 | XV Maximo Ramos Print Award. Ferrol, Spain.
RESIDENCIES
2009 | Makan-Bait International Residency Program. Amman, Jordan
2003 | Tallinna Kunstihoone, Tallinn, Estonia
2002 | Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, CA.
2001 |Frans Maseerel Graphic Center, Kasterlee, Belgium
and Gasworks Studios, Triangle Art Trust, London, UK



Related Activities
International Projects, Fairs
FIG Bilbao 2020
Artists in dialogue
26.11.20 14.12.20
After the landing of ´ace at FIG Bilbao2019, with Argentina as the guest country and the will of both organizations to expand their international networks, we have signed a collaboration agreement between both institutions: FIG BILBAO and Fundación´ace. Alicia Candiani, director of ´ace, becomes part of the Management Committee of Open Latin America with the aim of giving mobility to artists and their works on an international level. Also, this year we have once again been invited to participate in the fair, for which a prestigious group of international professional artists has been selected.
The International Fair of Printmaking and Art on Paper (FIG Bilbao) has positioned itself as one of the most important in Europe. This year, FIG Bilbao celebrates its 9th edition and, although it cannot aspire to attract more than 11,000 visitors in four days as happened last year, it has not hesitated to reinvent itself in an online format and, furthermore, it does not neglect face-to-face proposals insofar as their possibilities. Today the digital platform www.figonlinefair.com will premiere, offering 50 galleries and more than 500 artists that will be active throughout the month of December.
The works cover a wide range of prices and visitors will be able to enjoy the free and personalized advice of expert Elisa Hernando, who is in charge of the Approach online service. Among the creators present in this edition, it will also be possible to pledge on emerging talents such as Juan Escudero and Kepa Garraza, or already established such as Joan Miró and Eduardo Chillida.
Three containers have been installed next to the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum. Inside, all the works from the fair catalog will be projected on led screens that will change their content every 15 minutes. Until December 14 (from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.) they will be available to passersby. These are spaces that fulfill the function of the stands of FIG Bilbao, adapted to the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, and are complemented by the QR codes of each gallery that will allow access to the digital platform.
Related artists
REPRESENTED ARTISTS
Alicja Habsiak-Matczak (Poland)
Guy Langevin (Canada)
Bárbara Madsen (USA)
Cecilia Mandrile (Argentina, lives in New York)
Kestutis Vasilinius (Lithuania)
Zhang MinJie (China)
Artist-curator
Alicia Candiani (Argentina)


