Cristina Mejías (Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, 1986) We have become accustomed to preconceiving the academic world as the legitimate container and transmitter of knowledge. We have the luxury of being able to forget something because we can always retrieve it from books. But here it is not enough to simply dry a leaf and store it in a herbarium, because a living plant is bitten by the air, and it is important that this happens. Libraries need to be driven by our desire in order to take on life. The practice of orality cuts across bodies. The listener listens.
Cristina Mejías’ work is predicated on familiar narrations and storytelling, challenging the strict, traditional methods used to construct history by means of a linear narrative. What has brought us here to the present is founded upon the strata of History and stories that predate us. The creation of something regarded as new always begins with seizing a murmuring that triggers the story.
Mejías has a degree in Fine Arts from UEM (Madrid) and NCAD (Dublin) and a Master’s in Research in Art and Creation from UCM (Madrid). After several years living in Berlin, now she lives and works in Madrid.
Her work has recently been exhibited individually in Art centers such as Centro Párraga (Murcia, SP)- A un tiempo. Unos higos y un cántaro , Museum of Jaen and Museum of Cadiz (Jaen/Cádiz, SP)- For What Cannot Be Recovered Can at Least Be Reenacted, Blueproject Foundation (Barcelona, SP)- You Can’t Leave Fingerprints on Stone, a project born thanks to the collaboration with archaeologist and performer Efthimis Theou-, and the Contemporary Art Museum from Maracaibo (Maracaibo, VZ)- Tejer y contar.
Her work has also appeared in group exhibitions in Art institutions such as Tabakalera Donostia- Estudiotik at (San Sebastián, SP), CA2M- Colección XX (Madrid), La Casa Encedida- Generación 2020 and Things That Never Happened but Have Always Existed (Madrid, SP), SCAN Projects-Where water Rumbles (London, UK), CentroCentro (Madrid, SP), C3A-Touching Ground (Cordoba, SP), Fundación Mendoza- Correspondencias de Ultramar #4 Ana Navas y Cristina Mejías (Caracas, VZ), Artothèque-Ceux qui nous lient (Bordeaux, FR) or Tea-La tierra tiembla (Tenerife, SP). Along with her personal artistic work, currently she is collaborating with artist and performer Víctor Colmenero and their work has been seen or will be seen in places such as Volcánica Festival (Guadalajara, MX), La Capilla Theatre and Proyecto H (Mexico City, MX) or Pradillo Theatre (Madrid, SP).
She has recently won a number of awards and grants, including Generación 2020, Blueproject Foundation, VEGAP XXIII, Comunidad de Madrid|Estampa award or Iniciarte. Over the course of the last months, she has been artist in residence at Pico do Refúgio (Azores, PT), Hangar Lisboa (Lisboa, PT), C3A (Cordoba, SP), Matadero Madrid (Madrid, SP), Ateliers dos Coruchéus (Lisboa, PT), Tabakalera Donostia (San Sebastián, PT) and MACZUL (Maracaibo, VZ)
The book mentioned was by Ursula K. Leguin: The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader and the Imagination
