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Teresa Margolles (Culiacán, Mexico,1963) is a conceptual artist, photographer, videographer, and performance artist. As an artist she researches the social causes and consequences of death.Prince Claus Fund (June 2012) Report from the 2012 Prince Claus Awards CommitteeBOOK,weblink Great women artists, 2019, Rebecca Morrill, Karen, November 15- Wright, Louisa Elderton, 978-0-7148-7877-5, London, 1099690505, Margolles communicates observations from the morgue in her home city, Mexico City, and other morgues located in Latin America, as well as the extended emotional distress and social consequences that occur as product of death by murder. While working around the topic of the body, her work extends to the families of the victims, the remaining living bodies that witness the death of a loved one.WEB, Birgisdottir, Idunn, 2020-02-28, Teresa Margolles' Morbid Beauty,weblink 2023-04-05, Artland Magazine, en-US, The main medium of her work comes from the morgues themselves, which she transforms into sensory experiences that provoke a feeling of memory to the audience. Margolles finds particularly remarkable how the activity inside the morgues reflects the truth from the outside. In the case of Mexico City, she observes that the majority of victims belong to the lower classes. "Looking at the dead you see society".WEB,weblink Teresa Margolles - Liverpool Biennial 2006 {{!, Tate|website=www.tate.org.uk|language=en|access-date=2018-04-07}}

Life and career

Margolles was originally trained as a forensic pathologist, and holds academic degrees in science communication and forensic medicine from the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico City. She also conducted art studies at the Direccion de Fomento a la Cultura Regional del Estado de Sinaloa, Culiacan, Mexico.WEB, Entrevista a Teresa Margolles, artista visual. {{!, ::Hipermedula.org |url=http://hipermedula.org/2020/01/entrevista-a-teresa-margolles-artista-visual/ |access-date=2022-03-07 |website=hipermedula.org}}For her the morgue reflects society, particularly Mexican urban experience, where drug-related crime, poverty, political upheaval, and military action have resulted in violence and death;NEWS, Coulson, Amanda, 2004-09-10, Teresa Margolles, en, Frieze, 85,weblink 2023-04-05, 0962-0672, "The work of Teresa Margolles has always taken the human body and its liquid components as protagonists; they serve as vehicles for a relentless indictment of the growing violence in the world at large and in her own native country in particular, namely Mexico."BOOK, Frontera, Teresa Margolles, Wolfs, Rein, Ragaglia, Letizia, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther Konig, 2011, 978-3-865-60976-2, Koln, Letizia Ragaglia, 2011"When I was working with SEMEFO I was very interested in what was happening inside the morgue and the situations that were occurring, let's say, a few meters outside the morgue, among family members and relatives. But Mexico has changed so violently that it's no longer possible to describe what's happening outside from within the morgue. The pain, loss and emptiness are now found in the streets."BOOK, What Else Could We Talk About?, Medina, Cuauhtemoc, Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, 2009, 978-84-92480-66-1, Mexico, 85, Teresa Margolles, 2009(File:Escuchando los Sonidos de la muerte - Teresa Margolles.jpg|thumb|Visitors interacting with 'Escuchando los Sonidos de la muerte, by visual artist Teresa Margolles. )In 1990, Margolles founded an artists' collective titled SEMEFO, which is an anagram for the Mexican coroner's office.JOURNAL, Scott Bray, R, En piel ajena: The work of Teresa Margolles, Law Text Culture, 2007, 11, 1, 17,weblink 1 February 2014, Other core members of SEMEFO included Arturo Angulo and Carlos Lopez, yet the group had a loose membership. Through performance and installation-based work, SEMEFO commented on social violence and death in Mexico.Margolles left SEMEFO in the late 1990s.WEB,weblink Flag I, Teresa Margolles, Roca, José, October 2012, Tate, Since then her independent art practice continues to explore themes of death, violence and exclusion, specifically using forensic material and human remains.JOURNAL, Scott Bray, R, En piel ajena: The work of Teresa Margolles, Law Text Culture, 2007, 11, 1, 26–27,weblink 1 February 2014, She uses materials retrieved from the morgue where she has her studio,WEB,weblink Teresa Margolles, Liverpool Biennial 2006, Tate, such as the water used to wash corpses, which she uses as the foundation for her work;"The water comes from Mexico City’s morgue. It’s water used to wash the bodies of murder victims." Teresea Margolles, 2006One of Teresa Margolles’ first solo exhibitions to reach a larger audience was her show in the Museum Für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt, Germany titled Muerte Sin Fin (Death Without End) in 2004.WEB, ArtFacts, Teresa Margolles - Muerte sin fin {{!, Exhibition |url=https://artfacts.net/exhibition/teresa-margolles-muerte-sin-fin/15249 |access-date=2023-05-24 |website=ArtFacts |language=en}} In this interactive, installation-based art, Margolles uses her usual materials from the morgue to draw attention to death, to the anonymous corpses resulting from violent killings in Mexico City, and to people’s inclination to disassociate from death and dying.WEB, Kahn, Jillien, June 29, 2012, Teresa Margolles, Muerte Sin Fin,weblink 2023-05-24, The Order of the Good Death, en-US, Within this exhibit, there are seven components that each help to convey Margolles’ message about the importance of death, reinforcing its gravity and facing it head on.WEB, 2004, Teresa Margolles - Muerte sin fin,weblink May 24, 2023, Museum Für Moderne Kunst, The first installation is titled En el aire, a hallway full of soap bubbles from a machine that creates a bright, peaceful atmosphere, but in reality, it’s made from the water used to wash the bodies before an autopsy in the morgue. It demonstrates a reminder about how fragile life can be while also affirming one’s own consciousness and awareness of death. A well-known part of this exhibit named Papeles, features rows of varying shades of water colored paper that also incorporates the water used in the morgue, but has blood and fat from the bodies shown as well. Margolles creates these as a type of portrait, making a physical memento of these lives that were lost.JOURNAL, Carroll, Amy Sara, 2010, Muerte Sin Fin: Teresa Margolles's Gendered States of Exception,weblink TDR (1988-), 54, 2, 103–125, 10.1162/dram.2010.54.2.103, 40650615, 57566262, 1054-2043, In 2023 she was invited to participate in the 16th Cuenca Biennale, in Ecuador, curated by Ferran Barenblit, where she presented the piece "El poder".WEB, XVI Edición Bienal de Cuenca {{!, Fundación Bienal de Cuenca |url=https://fundacion.bienaldecuenca.org/index.php/xvi-edicion-bienal-de-cuenca/ |access-date=2023-12-25 |language=es}}

Critical reception

Awards

In 2012 she was honored with a Prince Claus Award from the Netherlands and the 5th Artes Mundi prize for international contemporary art.WEB,weblink Artes Mundi 5 Shortlist & Winners, Artes Mundi, She exhibits worldwide and has two works in the Tate collection; Flag I,WEB,weblink Flag I, Teresa Margolles, Tate, a version of a work shown at the Venice Biennale in 2009 when Margolles represented Mexico, and 37 Bodies,WEB,weblink 37 Bodies, Teresa Margolles, Tate, which memorializes Mexican murder victims with short pieces of surgical thread knotted together to form a single line. Her work is included in the main curated exhibition of the 2019 Venice Biennale "May You Live in Interesting Times".WEB,weblink Teresa Margolles. Venice Biennale 2019, In 2016 she was a part of the Current:LA Biennial made by the Department of Cultural Affairs in the city of Los Angeles.

Solo and significant group exhibitions

Margolles has been presenting in venues all over the world.

• 2004: Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
• 2005: Guggenheim Museum, New York, USAWEB, In the Air: Projections of Mexico,weblink 2007-12-05, Guggenheim, en-US, 2020-05-06,
• 2008: Kunsthalle Krems, Krems an der Donau, Austria
• 2009: Venice Biennale (Mexican pavilion), Italy
• 2010: Fridericianum, Kassel, Margolles, Teresa. Frontera
• 2010: Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, USA
• 2010: Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros (SAPS), Mexico City, Mexico
• 2011: MUSEION, Bolzano, Italy
• 2012: Lion Arts Centre, Adelaide, Australia
• 2012: El Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC), Mexico City, Mexico
• 2014: Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid, SpainWEB, EL TESTIGO.TERESA MARGOLLES,weblink ca2m.org, 2020-05-06,
• 2014: Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich, Switzerland
• 2015: Neuberger Museum of Art, New York, USANEWS, Mitter, Siddhartha, 2020-01-16, When Art Begins at the Scene of a Crime, en-US, The New York Times,weblink 2020-05-06, 0362-4331,
• 2016: Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich, Switzerland
• 2016: Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, USAWEB, Teresa Margolles: We Have a Common Thread {{!, Colby College Museum of Art|url=https://www.colby.edu/museum/exhibition/teresa-margolles-we-have-a-common-thread/|website=Colby College|language=en-US|access-date=2020-05-06}}
• 2018: Padiglione D'Arte Contemporanea (PAC), Milan, Italy
• 2019: The Gift of Art, Pérez Art Museum Miami, FloridaWEB, The Gift of Art • Pérez Art Museum Miami,weblink 2023-04-05, Pérez Art Museum Miami, en-US,
• 2019: Venice Biennale
• 2024: Fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, London.{{citation|title=Trafalgar Square Fourth Plinth: Winning artworks announced|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-57699300|work=BBC News|date=5 July 2021}}. (scheduled)

Public Collections (selection)

The work of Teresa Margolles is featured in international collections around the world. Installations and examples of her artistic practice are held in permanent collections atWEB, Artdaily, Teresa Margolles opens first exhibition in Chile at the Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende opens,weblink 2023-04-05, artdaily.cc, English,

• Pérez Art Museum Miami, FloridaWEB, Pérez Art Museum Miami Announces Latin American and Latinx Art Fund • Pérez Art Museum Miami,weblink 2023-04-05, Pérez Art Museum Miami, en-US,
• Princeton University Art Museum, New JerseyWEB, Teresa Margolles {{!, Princeton University Art Museum |url=https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/learn/artist-in-residence/teresa-margolles |access-date=2023-04-05 |website=artmuseum.princeton.edu}}
• Museum of Modern Art, New York
• Centre Pompidou, Paris
• Colección Jumex, Mexico City
• Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany
• Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom

Literature

• Kittelmann, Udo & Klaus Görner (2004) Teresa Margolles. Muerte sin fin, Ostfildern-Ruit, {{ISBN|978-3-7757-1473-0}} {{in lang|es}}
• Margolles, Teresa (2011) Margolles, Teresa. Frontera, Walther König, Cologne, {{ISBN|978-3-86560-976-2}} {{in lang|es}}
• Downey, Anthony (2009) "127 Cuerpos: Teresa Margolles and the Aesthetics of Commemoration", Lund Humphries, London, {{ISBN|978-1-84822-016-4}}
• Scott Bray, R (2007) "En piel ajena: The work of Teresa Margolles" Law Text Culture 11(1), pgs. 13-50, URL:weblink
• Downey, Anthony (2012) "In the Event of Death: Teresa Margolles and the Life of the Corpse", in Artes Mundi 5, pp. 62–66
• Heartney, Eleanor; Posner; Princenthal; Scott (2013) The Reckoning: Women Artists of the New Millennium, published by Prestel Verlag, pp. 206 – 213, {{ISBN|978-3-7913-4759-2}}
• Sileo, Diego. (2019) Teresa Margolles: Ya Basta Hijos de Puta, Silvana Editorale, {{ISBN|978-8836639168}}
• Baddeley, Oriana (2007) 'Teresa Margolles and the Pathology of Everyday Death.' Dardo, 5. pp. 60-81. {{ISSN|1886-0893}}

References

• Art Das Kunstmagazin (September 2006) Reste des Lebens,

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