Berenice Olmedo
born 1987 in Oaxaca, Mexico.
There is no stigma of disability in the world I propose, but only variations of existence, variations of movement, variations of slowness and speed. – Berenice Olmedo
Berenice Olmedo is known for her sculptures and kinetic objects, in which she often integrates prostheses and orthoses. Her fusions of body parts challenge the notion of human wholeness and draw attention to the political dimensions of disability, illness and care. The artist engages with standardized expectations of our bodies and explores the extent to which external aids are essential to human existence. By reusing forms and materials from the medical field, she challenges the pursuit of efficiency and seamless perfection in favor of a more physical, political, and existential contemporary experience. Her works have been exhibited at the Kunsthalle Basel; the ICA Boston, Boston; the Boros Collection, Berlin; the Dortmunder Kunstverein; the TEA Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, Tenerife; the Eres Foundation, Munich; the Museum of Contemporary Art of Monterrey; the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts; the Krannert Art Museum, Chicago; the Museum für moderne Kunst (MMK), Frankfurt; the Simian, Copenhagen; the Museo Tamayo, Mexico City; the Haus Mödrath - Räume für Kunst, Kerpen and the Museo Universitario de Ciencias y Arte (MUCA), Mexico City; CAPC Musée d'art Contemporain de Bordeaux.
Gallery exhibitions
Institutional exhibitions
![Berenice Olmedo, Pickpocket [Group] at Fondazione Zimei, Teatro Michetti, Pescara](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/u1k39e1w/production/10dc53694db7a12f1acbef3ee324f2dbd9d3d9b5-6518x4350.jpg?w=2000&auto=format)
![Berenice Olmedo, Toraco-Lumbo [SKOLIÓPHYSIS] at Lodos, Mexico City](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/u1k39e1w/production/426e4d2ae06e3317b44f52798d1c90a669c9e775-2349x1566.jpg?w=2000&auto=format)
Press
- Arcane (Antoine Clauss and Louis Dufreche, Issue 2, May 2024) [English / French]
- Art in America (Emily Watlington, May 2020) [English]
- Artforum (Noemi Smolik, December 2020) [English]
- Mousse (Anna Goetz, Winter 2020) [English]
- CURA (Fabian Schöneich, Spring 2020) [English]
- Ars Electronica (July 2017) [English]
- El Pais (Vallejo, Georgina, April 2017) [English]
Vita
Lives and works in Mexico City Born 1987 in Oaxaca, Mexico
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2023 Aithér, Fitzpatrick Gallery, Paris Entelékheia, Lodos Gallery, Mexico City
2022 Hic et Nunc, Kunsthalle Basel, Basel
2021 Eccéite, Simian, Copenhagen
2020 CsO, Haecceidad, Jan Kaps, Cologne
2019 Toraco-Lumbo Lodos [SKOLIÓPHYSIS], Lodos, Mexico City
2018 Anthroprosthetic, Jan Kaps, Cologne
2012 Bioethics and Biopolitics: The Entry of the Stray Dog into the City System, Escuela de Humanidades, Puebla
2011 Vivir Mejor (To Live Better), Laboratorio de Biología de la Universidad, Puebla The Nation, Which is Nation Thanks to its Dead, (Performance), Plaza de Armas, Puebla
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024 Capítulo VI: Rituales, LagoAlgo, Mexico City Spine, Gianni Manhattan, Vienna When The Star Roses Pour, HERmit Space, Beijing The Myth of Normal. Of Competing and Conceding, Kunstverein Hannover, Hannover Glad Rags, Jan Kaps, Cologne
2023 Attention After Technology, Kunsthall Trondheim, Trondheim Meaningful Disorders, Galerie Nordenhake, Mexico City Pickpocket, Fondazione Zimei, Teatro Michetti, Pescara The sieve of secrecy, beacon, Munich signals… here and there, PARA SITE, Hong Kong Antefuture, CAPC Musée d'art Contemporain de Bordeaux, Bordeaux Support Structures, Gathering, London Fallen Angels, SALTS, Basel Unto Dust, Fitzpatrick Gallery, Paris Species, Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich Frontal Sphinx, Mendes Wood, São Paulo
2022 I don't know you like that: The Bodywork of Hospitality, University at Buffalo Art Galleries, Buffalo, New York To Begin Again: Artists and Childhood, ICA Boston, Boston Bunker Berlin #4, Boros Collection, Berlin Wet Resistance, Dortmunder Kunstverein, Dortmund Colapso, TEA Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, Tenerife Vessels, David Zwirner, London Alter + Ego, Eres Foundation, Munich The Sunset Ensemble, Museum of Contemporary Art of Monterrey, Monterrey Part One, Company Gallery, New York
2021 I don’t know you like that: The Bodywork of Hospitality, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts Crip*, Krannert Art Museum, Chicago Attitudes of the unruly, Den Frie, Copenhagen Crip Time, Museum für moderne Kunst (MMK), Frankfurt Contramundos, Lodos, Mexico City The Prophetic Pictures, Galerie Crèvecœur, Paris Ghost & Bones, Galeria Stereo, Warsaw Before The Body There Is The Flesh, Interstate Projects, Brooklyn
2020 OTRXS MUNDXS, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City How to Survive, Sprengel Museum Hannover, Hannover INCORPOREA, Basement Roma, Rome and suddenly it all blossoms, 2nd Riga Biennial, Riga Dream Baby Dream, Haus Mödrath - Räume für Kunst, Kerpen
2018 Nuevo Manifiesto de Cine Mexicano, (curated by Diego Salvador Rios and Francisco Cordero-Oceguera), Lodos, Mexico City Selfreconstruction: Detritus, (curated by Abraham Cruzvillegas), Museo Universitario de Ciencias y Arte (MUCA), Mexico City Memory Emplacements, Knowledge Tianguis, Laboratorio Arte Alameda, Mexico City Now in common, More opacity’ Universitario de Ciencias y Arte (MUCA ROMA), Mexico City Trasher, LADRÓN galería, Mexico City
2017 CyberArts, OÖ Kulturquartier, OK Center, Linz Young creators of FONCA, Centro de las Artes, San Luis Potosí Freedom for the taste, El Colegio Nacional, Mexico City
2016 UNAM Biennial Visual Arts, Galería Antonio Ramírez, Mexico City Transpiksel, International Festival of Art, Science and Free Technology, Facultad de artes y diseño, UNAM, Mexico City
2015 No need for references, Kunsthalle Exnergasse WUK, Vienna
Performance
2024 Amenaza con no desaparecer, la era de la extinción, Museo Jumex, Mexico City