MARTA MINUJÍN PRESENTS HER FIRST SOLO EXHIBITION IN MEXICO

Kurimanzutto presents Marta Minujín: Vivir en arte, a journey through the work of a key figure in the transformation of contemporary art. For six decades, Marta Minujín (1943, Buenos Aires) has taken part in movements that broke conventions, establishing herself as one of the most important figures in Argentine art and a global icon. The exhibition’s title reflects the artist’s deep wish to infuse every action in life with art. A pioneer of happenings, performances, and participatory art, Minujín has demonstrated throughout her extensive career that art can inhabit every sphere of existence—from the most intimate spaces to politics and global markets.

The exhibition features, for the first time in Mexico, El obelisco acostado (The Fallen Obelisk), a piece from 1978 that inaugurated the series The Fall of Universal Myths and was originally presented at the São Paulo Latin American Biennial that same year. Resting within the gallery space, a replica of the Obelisk from Plaza de la República in Buenos Aires invites visitors to walk through it and discover a series of videos created by the artist. These videos activate the sculpture as both a narrative and conceptual device, questioning the origin and meaning of cultural myths.

The simple gesture of reclining a monument and making it accessible strips it of its symbolic authority. Verticality—and with it, the phallocentrism inherent in many monuments—has been a recurring target in Minujín’s work, which seeks to dismantle such structures through active audience participation.

Surrounding this toppled myth is a selection of mattress works the artist has been creating since 2006. The mattress first appeared in Minujín’s work in the early 1960s, when she began working with soft sculptures while studying in Paris. Initially, she used discarded mattresses found on streets near hospitals, later painting them with designs inspired by fashionable miniskirts of the time, giving them a vibrant and provocative air in tune with the context of the sexual revolution. In her words: “We spend half our lives on mattresses. We are born on one, we make love on one, and, most likely, one day we will die on one.”

In her most recent mattress series, Minujín creates soft textile forms intertwined and painted with bold, colorful stripes that convey movement, vitality, and joy. These sculptures are presented alongside a selection of drawings that echo these soft shapes and vibrant palettes, bringing us closer to the artist’s more painterly side and the relationship between her two- and three-dimensional work.

Archival materials accompany El obelisco acostado, offering a deeper look at some of Minujín’s key projects. The photographs, diagrams, installation process documentation, and press clippings on view trace the evolution of her large-scale participatory monuments and the use of ephemeral materials in her works.

From her early mattress sculptures of the 1960s to iconic projects such as El Obelisco de Pan Dulce (1979), La Torre de Pan de James Joyce (1980), and El Partenón de los Libros (1983/2017), the selection highlights the integration of pop aesthetics and public intervention in the artist’s practice. These materials aim to contextualize the exhibited works, revealing Minujín’s broader artistic and political vision through the transformation of civic space and cultural memory.

Vivir en arte allows us to appreciate different aspects of the Argentine artist’s practice and invites reflection on the role Minujín has played in establishing Latin American art as a driving force of global artistic innovation.

The exhibition is on view through October 4 at kurimanzutto, Gob. Rafael Rebollar 94, Col. San Miguel Chapultepec 11850, Mexico City (Mexico).

*Cover image: View of installation Marta Minujín: Living in Art, kurimanzutto, Mexico City, 2025. Photo: Gerardo Landa and Eduardo López. Courtesy: kurimanzutto.