As a multidisciplinary artist, a member of the group Artefacto, and the founder of the Space for Artistic Research and Reflection (EspIRA), Patricia Belli (b. 1964 in Managua; lives in Managua) has been a central figure in art and feminist practice in Nicaragua for over 30 years. Her distinctive assemblages bring together found objects that have often been neglected or discarded, including plastic doll parts found washed up on the beach, animal carcasses given to her as gifts by loved ones, and garments purchased at estate sales. She composes these into fragmented bodily forms that confront political and sexual oppression, death, and desire.
For the 58th Carnegie International, Belli creates Stories from my dead (2022), a landscape of lost memories once held by her late mother. Recollections voiced by her friends and family members animate wire, fabric, and bone puppets, as well as the suspended branch pathways they appear to travel along. Belli grieves not just for loved ones she has lost, but for the passing of time, and the memories that have disappeared with them.
