Biography
Mabe Bethônico
Mabe Bethônico is an artist, researcher and professor. Her work is particularly centered around the history of mining and its consequential environmental and societal impacts. Projects explore the cultural, economic, and political transformations caused by extractive activities, utilizing archives and field documentation. She has interacted with various collections, including those at the Eisenbibliothek in Schlatt, the Museum of Ethnography in Geneva, and the Imperial College in London. She has also worked with materials from Brazilian archives, such as the Mining sector of the Ministry of Labor and Employment. She is member of the international group of artists and theoreticians "World of Matter," initiated in 2010.
Mabe Bethônico's artistic practice encompasses a diverse array of tools and dynamics centered around the sharing of knowledge. These take shape through mediums such as books, posters, installations, objects, and live presentations. Within her work, she delves into institutional matters and the intricate process of memory construction and activation. Currently, she holds teaching positions at ENSP Arles [École nationale supérieure de la photographie] and at HEAD – Genève. From 2002 to 2019, she served as a professor at the Fine Arts School of the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil. During the period spanning 2018 to 2021, she engaged as a guest researcher at ESAAA – École Supérieure d’Art Annecy Alps, France, as part of the project "Effondrement des Alpes", financed by the European Union in a French-Swiss partnership.
She participated in the 27th and 28th São Paulo Biennials and in the 17th Architecture Biennial in Venice in 2021. She has shown at the Museum of Modern Art in São Paulo, the Antioquia Museum in Medellín, at the Kunstverein Munich, Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, Musée d’Art Moderne de Lyon, Malba in Buenos Aires, amongst others. Performed conferences, or readings, were presented in Sesc Pompeia, São Paulo, Universidade de Brasilia, Universidade de São Paulo, Concordia University – Montreal, Tel Aviv Museum, São Paulo Biennial, Fundação Joaquim Nabuco – Recife, Nottingham Contemporary, amongst others.
Education
Royal College of Art (London), PhD, 2000.
Royal College of Art (London), Master of Fine Arts (Distinction), 1995.
Escola de Belas Artes da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (Belo Horizonte), BA Fine Arts, 1991
Selected Grants and Awards
2023 • Research grant from the City of Geneva
2022 • Research grant from the Canton of Geneva
2017 • Finalist at Prêmio Videobrasil, Sesc, São Paulo
2017 • Scholar-in-Residence. Eisenbibliothek, Schllat
2014 • Residências Artísticas da Fundação Joaquim Nabuco e CCBN, Centro Cultural Banco
do Nordeste
2014 • Finalist at Prêmio CNI SESI Marcantonio Vilaça, CNI SESI SENAI
2013 • Scholarship - Pós Doutorado no Exterior, CNPq (Brazilian national council of research)
- Musée d’Ethnographie de Genève
2013 • Finalist at Visible Award/ Fundação Pistoleto, Fondazione Pistoleto e Fondazione
Zegna’s Art Projects – VanAbbe Museum
2013 • Awarded Edições CAPACETE/ MInC, Capacete Rio de Janeiro
2013 • Awarded Prêmio Honra ao Mérito IPHAN Arte e Patrimônio, IPHAN and FUNARTE
Selected Group Exhibitions
2023 • Novalis-Museum Wiederstedt, Werkleitz Festival – My Precious [“Mein Schatz”]
Curators Daniel Herrmann and Alexander Klose
2023 • Museu de Arte Moderna MAM São Paulo – Elementar: Fazer Junto. Curators Cauê Alves, Valquíria Prates, Mirella Estelles.
2022 • Pinacoteca de São Paulo, O Colecionador, curator José Augusto Ribeiro
2021 • Musée d'Art Moderne de Lyon: IRL é RL, collective curating from ESAAA
2021 • Centre d'Art Contemporain de Genève, Lemaniana, curator Andrea Bellini &
2021 • Pinacoteca de São Paulo: A Máquina do Mundo, curator José Augusto Ribeiro
2021 • 17th Venice Architecture Biennial: How will we live together? curator Hashim Sarkis
2020 • Bozar, Brussells: Gallery of Futures, interrupted, curated collectively
2019 • Sesc Belenzinho, São Paulo: Meta-Arquivo 1964-1985 Espaço de escuta e leitura de histórias sobre a ditadura, curator Ana Pato
2019 • Haus fur Kunst Uri: Nature: Between Desire and Reality, curators Barbara Zurcher e Bruno Z'Graggen
2019 • Live in Your Head, Genève: Shifting Baselines, curator Aurélien Gamboni
2019 • Le Commun, Genève: 1000 écologies, curator Anna Berseghian
2019 • Il Min Museum, Seoul, South Korea: Dear Amazon, curator Juhyun Cho
2019 • Museu de Arte Moderna São Paulo (MAM), São Paulo, Brazil: 36o Panorama da Arte Brasileira - Sertão, curator Julia Rebouças
2019 • CPG, Genève: Effondrement des Alpes, curators Joerg Bader and Stéphane Sauzedde
2018 • 20th Festival Videobrasil de Arte Contemporânea, São Paulo, Brazil
2017 • Bienalle9: Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium: Pour une esthéthique du moyens disponibles, curators Angel Vergara and Joel Benzakin
2017 • Centro Andaluz De Arte Contemporáneo. Sevilha, Spain: A Thousand Roaring Beasts: Display Devices for a Critical Modernity, curator Olga Fernández
2017 • Museum of Ethnography, Genève: No’Photo
2017 • University of Minesotta, Katherine E. Nash Gallery: World of Matter: Mobilizing Materialities, curator Howard Oransky
2015 • Concordia University, Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Montreal, Canada: World of Matter: Exposing Resource Ecologies, curator Michèle Thériault
2015 • Kunsthaus Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark: Dump! Multispecies Making and Unmaking, curators Elaine Gan, Steven Lam, Sarah Luukofsky
2015 • Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, Great Britain: Rights of Nature: Art and Ecology in the Americas, curators TJ Demos, Alex Farquharson, Irene Aristizàbal
2015 • Museu de Arte Moderna São Paulo (MAM), São Paulo, Brazil: Paisagem Opaca, curator Cauê Alves
2015 • Museu de Arte Contemporânea São Paulo (MAC), São Paulo, Brazil: Prêmio Marcantonio Vilaça CNI SESI
2014 • James Gallery. CUNY The Graduate Centre NY, City University New York NY, USA: World of Matter, curator Katherine Carl
2014 • Hartwar Medien Kunstverein (HMKV), Dortmund, Germany: World of Matter: On the global ecologies of raw material, curator Inke Arns
2014 • Celma Albuquerque Galeria de Arte, Belo Horizonte, Brazil: Let it out / Out-let, curator Mabe Bethônico
2013 • Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Holland: Visible Award, 2013, Pistoletto Foundation
2013 • Paço das Artes, São Paulo, Brazil: Arquivo Vivo, curators Cauê Alves and Priscila Arantes
2012 • Palácio das Artes, Belo Horizonte, Brazil: Segue-se ver o que quisesse, curator Joerg Bader
(Detailed list available on pdf)
Books
BETHÔNICO, Mabe (org.)
Missing Words for Considering Stones, Rocks, Pebbles and Mountains: A Vocabulary of Proximity. with contributions by Allan Bogana, Anika Schwarzlose, Anne-Sarah Huet, A Published Event [Justy Phillips & Margaret Woodward], Brian D. McKenna, Christian Kosmas Mayer, Christophe Rey, Daniela Zappi, Edwin Gnos, Eric Maeder, Guilherme Mansur, Ignacio Acosta, Ismaela Zrydaoré, Luísa Azevedo, Marcos Reigota, Masha Ru & Alain Chaney, Mônica Meyer, Monika Bakke, Nicolas Crispini, Quentin Lazzareschi, ὑφή, Wellington Cançado, Simone Cortezão, Xavier Ribas. StoneStatements Editions and ESAAA, Geneva, 2021. ISBN 979-10-91595-27-7
BETHÔNICO, Mabe & Pato, Ana
Mabe Bethônico | Documents: Making Public the Construction of Memory. Edições Videobrasil, São Paulo, 2017.
BETHÔNICO, Mabe
T.S./ Mabe Bethônico. São Paulo, Ikrek Editora, 2017. Coleção Ponto e Vírgula. ISBN 978-85-67769-12-7
BETHÔNICO, Mabe & JESUS, Eduardo (Editors)
Revista Pós: Biografia> V. 6, N. 11: MAI 2016. ISSN: 1982-9507/ ISSN electronic: 2238-2046
BETHÔNICO, Mabe
De como Mabe Bethônico percorreu a caatinga na Suíça, nos arquivos do autor viajante Edgar Aubert de la Rüe, e aprendeu francês, o idioma da obra - Brésil Aride La vie dans la caatinga, no processo de tradução deste relato geológico sobre o Nordeste do Brasil, visitado em missão da Unesco para a localização de riquezas minerais em 1953-4, que constitui um mapa das minas, com interesses pela geografia.
Edições Capacete, Rio de Janeiro 2014, 219 p., ISBN 978-85-6537-09-6
BETHÔNICO, Mabe (Editor)
Provisões – Uma conferência visual [World of Matter]. With contributions by Mabe Bethônico, Ursula Biemann, Elaine Gan, Rogério Haesbaert, Renata Marquez, Uwe H. Martin & Frauke Huber, Peter Mörtenböck & Helge Mooshammer, José Augusto Pádua, Emily E. Scott, Paulo Tavares, Lonnie van Brummelen & Sieren de Haan, Kaka Werá;
Instituto Cidades Criativas /ICC, Belo Horizonte 2013, 296 p., ISBN 978-85-61659-24-0
