Ana Mendieta - Flower Person, Flower Body | Art City 2026 Special Project

From Thursday 5 to Sunday 8 February 2026, Palazzo Hercolani hosts Flower Person, Flower Body, an exhibition and video screening by the Cuban artist Ana Mendieta.

Ana Mendieta worked with sculpture, video, performance, and site-specific interventions to investigate the correspondences between the body and natural elements. Born in Cuba and forced to emigrate to the United States in the context of Operation Peter Pan, the artist sought to reconnect with her roots through physical closeness to the land. In an attempt to mend an identity torn apart by political violence and the experience of exile, Mendieta traced points of contact between the natural landscape and her own body, which becomes absorbed into the living substance of matter.

The artist’s mimetic strategies are explored within the context of ART CITY Bologna 2026 and enter into dialogue with the frescoes of the Sala della Boschereccia. The winter garden of Palazzo Hercolani constructs the illusion of a lush park through artificial means, offering the image of a natural space
made available to the eyes and imagination of human beings.

Ana Mendieta, by contrast, listens to the qualities of the elements and recognizes a form of intrinsic intelligence within them. Seeking to insert herself into the flow of organic cycles, her interventions downscale the role of humans and re-establish the centrality of nature. Attuned to the artistic experiments of her time, Ana Mendieta reworks the stylistic features of American Land Art, Minimalism, and Process Art from a completely new perspective.

Her works are distinguished by the centrality of the relationship between the body and the environment and by an ephemeral quality, which accompanies natural movements and shifts attention from fixed forms to their coming into being and unmaking.

In Flower Person, Flower Body, a figure made of intertwined flowers surrenders to the movement of water. The silhouette lies on a floating sheet, evoking an archaic funerary ritual.

The form is left adrift and risks being dispersed by the force of the waves. Adapting to environmental transformations and the erosive action of the water, Ana Mendieta’s floral body serenely attunes itself to the rhythms of nature.