Teresa Margolles has just been awarded a Special Mention at the 58th International Art Exhibition for the Venice Biennale, an occasion to rediscover our carte blanche we did with her for our December art issue. 

Teresa Margolles is a Mexican conceptual artist, photographer, director and performer. Interrogating the causes and consequences of death, she places the body at the center of her work. In the new series of photographs Pistas de Baile, each print shows a transgender sex worker standing on the remnants of a different dance floor from the demolished night clubs of Ciudad Juárez in Mexico. Although their figures become part of a landscape in which ruins and devastation are the subject, the sex workers stand proud and show us their best self, as though asserting their existence amidst the destruction. This ongoing project continued during Manifesta 11 in Zurich, at Galerie Peter Kilchmann, as Teresa Margolles coped with the brutal murder of Karla, a transgender woman who was beaten to death in December 2015.

Teresa Margolles, Berenice, Pista de Baile del Bar “Tlaquepaque”, 2016, 180 x 120 cm
Courtesy Teresa Margolles et Mor Charpentier.

Teresa Margolles, Jaqueline, Pista de Baile del Club “Centro Lagunero”, 2016,180 x 120 cm
Courtesy Teresa Margolles et Mor Charpentier.

Teresa Margolles, Osiris, Pista de Baile “Las Vegas“, 180 x 120 cm
Courtesy of Teresa Margolles and Mor Charpentier.

Teresa Margolles, Patty, Pista de Baile del Club “Hollywood”, 2016, 180 x 120 cm
Courtesy of Teresa Margolles and Mor Charpentier.

Teresa Margolles, Sansara, Pista de Baile del Nightclub “Irma’s”, 2016, 180 x 120
Courtesy of Teresa Margolles and Mor Charpentier.

Teresa Margolles, Scarlett, Pista de Baile del Club “La Cruda”, 2016, 180 x 120 cm
Courtesy of Teresa Margolles et Mor Charpentier.