ART INTERNATIONAL ZURICH 2011

Mondongo
presented by connect contemporary art

Mondongo is the word for a traditional Argentine tripe stew. It is also the name for the internationally renowned Argentine artist collective who will have their first Swiss exhibition at the connect contemporary arts both of the 13th ART INTERNATIONAL ZURICH.

Juliana Laffitte, Manuel Mendanha and Agustina Picasso, who founded Mondongo 1999, are not only partial to the stew, but make their work from a "cauldron" of ingredients:" We've used a huge variety of materials in our art, depending on what best reinforces the concept oft he work," says Manuel Mendanha, 34. "It's always a process of experimentation until we finish it. We'll keep experimenting with materials' til death comes!"
A favoured medium is food, freeze-dried and vacuum-sealed in layers of resin, everything from slabs of meat to Oreo biscuits and Ritz crackers. It's all about the lowest common denominator of onsumer living - trinkets, cookies, sausages, jelly babies: the work revels in the tawdry and the grotesque.

"We are like three witches stirring it up in a cauldron… attempting to alchemize, to distill and to ooze all the chaos and the all possible ";all-ness" in it…"- Mondongo, 2008 (from the Mondongo Manifesto)
So at connect contemporary we see an image of a girl whose face is made from plasticine "breasts", raised in higher relief around her forehead, chin and cheeks, with pointilliste plasticine dots marking out the nose, mouth and eyes; a portrait of Ursula Andress formed out of cookies and crackers; a landscape made from thread with a mass of images of a baby girl in different shapes.

Also showing are Mondongo images that Comme Des Garcon has used in the store's 2008 printed material. Rei Kawakubo, designer for Comme Des Garcons, loves the power of Mondongo's work and initiated the collaboration with the collective. Playing Mondongo at their own game, Comme des Garcons has appropriated the artists' work, naturally with their full approval, to communicate store openings through 2008. Mondongo's highly original, creative work is thus used to reflect the essence oft he Comme des Garcons brand. Kawakubo has also customised various Mondongo images to create twenty curated pages of Wallpaper magazine (October 2008), including a limited edition cover.

Mondongo's work is now not only well received in Argentina, with their Buenos Aires gallery talking about "Mondongo mania" but, has begun to make an impact internationally, with works collected by the Houston Museum of fine arts, board members oft he Tate Gallery and the Museum of Modern Art (New York).
Mondongo's work is held in public and private collections worldwide and they have exhibited at the Valencia and Sao Paolo biennials, shown in the USA, (Art Basel Miami), Spain, UK, China, Korea and Latin America.

connect contemporary arts

Launched in July 2009, connect contemporary has established a varied programme to profile emerging and established international artists, including: Artists Anonymous, Martin di Girolamo, Flavia da Rin, Dodi Reifenberg, Ryszard Wasko, Fabio Kacero, Mark Cross Gabriela Fernandez, amongst others. Gallery Director Ivo Kamm is keen to profile the work of international artists, including those of Latin America, who are largely unrepresented in commercial galleries outside of their own countries.

Comme Des Garcons
Comme Des Garcons has long championed the crossover between art and fashion, working with artists who, in the company's words "mix strength and beauty". Mondongo joins Cindy Sherman and Daniel Buren in this illustrious roster.

Copyright / Source: IVOKAMM - connect contemporary art, Wil / Switzerland - 2011