Search for Origin is the most extensive exhibition organised in Spain devoted to Ana Mendieta (Havana, Cuba 1948 - New York, USA, 1985). The show brings together about one hundred works in spanning seventeen years of the artist"s production (1968-1985), including photographs, videos, sculptures, installations, drawings and paintings.

The show explores in particular how the artist never ceased to reinvent herself, developing an original, ephemeral sculptural language, at times performative in act, nourished by her research into primitive myths and rock art. The exhibition focuses especially on revealing her relationship to the visible and the invisible, her way of rendering the unspeakable intelligible through the trace of the body, and how it relates to nature. It is not intended to be a retrospective show, but rather to celebrate the relevance of such political and vibrant contemporary work.

The exhibition is arranged thematically, with eight chapters in which iconic works are displayed together with 13 previously unseen pieces. Ana Mendieta. Search for Origin is a rare opportunity to explore how the artist constantly reinvented her art, in particular by constantly returning to her geographical, artistic, and cultural roots.

Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, Ana Mendieta created a compelling set of works defined by her body and a timeless encounter with nature. Over a career spanning a little longer than 15 years, she developed her own hybrid practice that fuses aspects of body art and land art. She used the term ‘earth-body’ to describe her particular approach to art making, in which she would incorporate her own figure—or its silhouette or imprint—into the natural landscape. Mendieta"s desire to connect with nature and history evolved starting from her desire to recover her lost homeland, Cuba, from which she was exiled to the United States when she was 12, after the revolution led by Fidel Castro.

Conceived by MO.CO Montpellier Contemporain (France) and co-produced with MUSAC, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, in collaboration with Musée des beaux-arts La Chaux-de-Fonds (Switzerland).