Berenice Olmedo
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Berenice Olmedo (born 1987) is a Mexican sculptor and performance artist. Born in Oaxaca, Mexico,[1] she was educated at the Universidad de la Américas in Puebla, Mexico,[2] and is now based in Mexico City.[3] Her work addresses the body, illness and care, as well as the biopolitics of disability and prosthetic devices.[1][4][5]
Olmedo's sculptures are constructed from materials and devices from the medical field, including scoliosis corsets and prosthetic appendages.[6][7] Olmedo displayed sculptures made from secondhand orthotic devices in her first solo exhibition which took place in 2018 in Cologne.[8] A review in Art Papers magazine states that her work "calls into question how ableist and anthropocentric frameworks operate across the sociopolitical spectrum."[9][8] Writing in Flash Art magazine, Jane Ursula Harris reflects on Olmeda's work as a disruption of "ableist standards of normativity" that allows viewers to "recognize the wellness of diverse bodies."[10]
In her 2012–2015 project Canine Tomatocommerce or The Political-Ethical Dilemma of Merchandise, Olmeda gathered the carcasses of stray dogs killed by vehicles on the streets near Puebla.[11] She created various products from the corpses to display as art including soap made from dog fat and boots, jackets, bags, and fur products from dog skin.[11] She also sold these items at a flea market in Puebla.[11] The carcasses themselves were never directly displayed.[11] Her work was acquired for the Boros Collection in Berlin in 2022.[12]
Olmedo has exhibited her work in the 36th São Paulo Art Biennial,[13] the Berkeley Museum and Film Archive,[14] Museum Trondheim,[7] ICA Boston,[13] the Kunsthalle Basel,[15] the Museum of Contemporary Art of Monterrey, and the Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt.[13]