It all started with a cup of coffee in Cochabamba's cafe Elevate. Vanessa's taciturn yet graceful expression had sparked something in Marisol Mendez that she for a while had been longing. 'Can I make a portrait of you?', Mendez managed to ask once Vanessa came to hand her the drink. Vanessa's first reaction was disbelief. Requests like these are not to be taken lightly, images can be treacherous, turning against their models, employed for means beyond agreed. Mendez's genuine interest in the archetypes of Maria and Maria Magdalene, nonetheless, persuaded her.

And so, Vanessa became an icon. Clad in a cream and gold-threaded cloak, in front of antique mobiliary, and sporting camp leather boots, her figure paid tribute to the Marian figures to be found in Potosi, Cuzco, or Quito such as Virgen de! Cerro, Nuestra Senora de Belen, and Nuestra Senora de Guapulo. Virgins whose triangular shape evoked the peaks of the New World, their fertility and motherly deity Christians could trap but not domesticate.

This encounter gave Mendez the impulse needed to create her MADRE series. She reconnected with her native city whilst seeking to get a deeper understanding of what it meant to be a woman in this Andean territory.

'I chose to start with a cliche, rather than to end with it', Mendez argued, acknowledging the colonial weight of the two archetypes she chose as starting points of her MADRE project. 'The conversations I had with each of the portrayed and the research I did on my family history helped me complicate my initial findings, challenging the images and fixed ideas we associate with womanhood'.

The editorial conception of Mendez's photo book makes this intention palpable. Her images do not follow a linear pattern, a series of easily decipherable connections. Instead, we encounter a game of tensions through which Bolivia's syncretic reality emerges. Outspoken images of Oruro carnival masks and folk dances of pre-Columbian origin, such as the diablada and morenada, coexist side by side with more introspective images, such as a solitary flame slowly burning atop a mountain or the crackled and silky surface of an egg. We are thrust into a flow of motions, sensations, and figures where the past merges with the present and present evokes past.

Through personal and visual encounters with the stories of the women around her, Mendez has created a photo book that is eclectic, intimate yet socially resonant, and simultaneously public but uniquely individual. The thoughts and emotions shared subsequently spurred her interest to engage with the close-knit counterpart of MADRE, that is, the father figure, in a secondary project. Contrary to the making of MADRE, however, Mendez found it harder to strike conversations with strangers, to exchange thoughts of an experience she herself has not embodied.

A set of letters written by Mendez's grandfather during a stay in Mexico City in the 1980s, addressed to his two sons, are the main point of departure of this project entitled Padre. Mendez delves into the authoritative, restrained but candid language enclosed in these letters and attempts to give them a visual form, resulting in imagery that plays with shadows, debris, and animal metaphors, and evokes local feasts and historical events. such as the Ichapekene Piesta in San Ignacio de Moxos or the Chaco War (1932-1935) between Bolivia and Paraguay.

This text is an excerpt of an article written by Valeria Posada Villada about Marisol Mendez’s project MADRE / Padre, originally published in Foam Magazine 65, Talent, in 2024.

MARISOL MENDEZ's is photographer and researcher from Cochabamba, Bolivia. Driven by research-led and self-initiated projects, she seeks to deconstruct traditional modes of representation and weave nuanced narratives with multiple layers of meaning. At the heart of her artistic pursuit lies the exploration of humankind. Rooted in the landscapes and folklore of her culture, Marisol’s work oscillates between candid and staged, naturalistic and mythical. Marisol Mendez has been part of numerous exhibitions and festivals like Sharjah Biennial 15, Format Festival, Getxophoto, and Athens Photo Festival. Her work has been published worldwide including in Wallpaper, Vogue Italia, Balam , Die Zeit, and Fishye Magazine. In 2021 MADRE was the cover of The British Journal of Photography. Mendez's practice has earned acclaim and received various awards like the Lucie Scholarship for Fine Art, first place in the 2023 Sony World Professional Award Environment category and the 2021 PhMuseum Photography Grant New Generation Prize. She was selected as a Foam Talent 2024-25 and published her first photobook MADRE with Setanta Books (UK). She’s currently doing a residency with Académie des beaux-arts & Cité internationale des arts in Paris.

VALERIA POSADA-VILLADA is a historian and curator specializing in photography and arts from Abya Yala (The Americas). She is currently responsible for managing the photography collection of the World Museum in The Netherlands. Prior to her current position, Valeria worked as Curator of Public Practice at Foam and Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the National Museum of Colombia, supporting the work of emerging and established talents alike through exhibitions and public programs. She has been jury and reviewer for awards and programs such as SO DuPHO Award, Breda Photo, Arles Photo Folio Review and Hamburg Portfolio Review.