@ Marisol Mendez. “Assumption”, from the series MADRE.

Images and text by Marisol Mendez

MADRE interrogates the whitewashed, phallocentric and colonial representation of womenx in my native Bolivia. The project is an exploration of the feminine as it wrestles with religious and cultural interpretations that are dogmatic and reductionist, confining womenx to either the image of the holy Virgin Mary or the sinner Mary Magdalene. Weaving together Andean folklore and Catholic iconography, MADRE spotlights the complexities of contemporary Bolivian identity and reflects on the country’s diverse and multifaceted culture.

@ Marisol Mendez. “Quinceañera”, from the series MADRE.

MADRE also includes archival images from my family album that depict female relatives, on which I intervene to subvert their original meaning or add a new layer of symbolism. Ultimately, the archive functions as a bridge to reconnect to my matriarchal lineage.

Situated between fiction and documentary, the images paint a world interconnected by physical and mythological elements—a dance between the upper and inner worlds of Incan mythology. Here, womenx experience change, loss, decline, and death.

@ Marisol Mendez. “Bull”, from the series MADRE.

@ Marisol Mendez. “Madre”, from the series MADRE

Preconceived biases or prejudices about the womenx in the portraits are challenged by their piercing gaze, which returns that of the viewer. I spent hours conversing with my subjects about patriarchal and one-dimensional representations of womanhood, and collaborating with them on how they would like to be photographed. The outcome is a protest in the face of unjust depictions that erase the nuances of what it means to be a womanx in Bolivia with an inherited past of colonisation, patriarchy and interlacing faiths and religions.