Vidriera Mondongo

The Mondongo group opened Vidriera Mondongo in the Palermo neighborhood of Buenos Aires, precisely in the place where the shop window of a cake factory once stood across from the artists' studio. Facing the street, the space was conceived as a territory for the group and other invited artists to experiment and show works not intended for commercial gain. It opened to passersby with an installation that recreated the Hall of Mirrors of the Palace of Versailles, where the performance titled No Soy Tan Joven para Saberlo Todo (I Am Not That Young to Know Everything) was presented. The action was presented in the context of the Performance Art Biennial, an event that attracted the participation of the so-called Queen (Laurie Anderson) and the self-proclaimed grandmother (Marina Abramovic) of performance, along with French healing artist Sophie Calle. Mondongo is already known for the creation of splendid, tiny and detailed little theaters exhibited at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Buenos Aires, like the faithful reproduction of the tomb of San Francisco or the replica of the scientific station described in the Solaris, the eerie 1961 science fiction novel by Stanislaw Lem that has inspired three films. Now the group dazzles viewers with the replica of the luxurious versaillesque gallery. A magnificent trick, the stage appeared to measure only two meters wide by less than one meter deep and its construction involved the participation of around 36 people. An actor with a mirrored mask occupied the stage during the days in which the curtain was raised, as candles, colorful skulls, cakes and pleading hands sometimes accompanied him. While for some viewers the performance was about inequality and hunger, according to the information provided by the artists the action was about Pinocchio's sexuality. Formed by Juliana Laffitte (Buenos Aires, 1974) and Manuel Mendanha (Buenos Aires, 1976), the group Mondongo was created in 1999 by artists trained in painting. They immediately attracted media attention with the creation of a gallery of portraits of local personalities, the Spanish royalty and an eclectic selection of celebrities rendered through the use of unorthodox materials such as cold cuts, bread, gold chains, candy, matches and communion wafers. After this first phase, with the creation of multiple versions of Calavera (Skull, 2009)—large works rendered with Plasticine on wood, reminiscent of skulls covered with images describing the history of the world —they began to be viewed differently by the public. In early August, Vidriera Mondongo will present the record of a trip on the Trans-Siberian railway that connects Moscow to Vladivostok, in the Russian Pacific coast. It is a neo-muralist project by filmmaker Mariano Llinás that proposes a reflection on large LED screens, their use in public spaces and their possibilities in film. Llinás, had collaborated with Mondongo before, as part of the exhibition titled Mondongo Presents Painter Mariano Llinás (Galería Ruth Benzacar, 2013), where the renowned filmmaker showed Río Paraná: Pintura en Movimiento (Paraná River: Moving Painting).