Why are some objects kept in ethnographic and anthropological collections not considered art? And what happens if we rethink how many of these objects have influenced actual art history? And what happens also if we look the other way around, if we read contemporary art as future archeology? What will survive, and how will this information survive? – Mariana Castillo Deball
Mariana Castillo Deball takes a kaleidoscopic approach to her practice, mediating between science, archaeology, and the visual arts, exploring the way in which these disciplines describe the world. Her installations, performances, sculptures, and publishing projects arise from the recombination of different languages that seek to understand the role objects play in our identity and history. Her works result from a long research process, allowing her to study the different ways in which a historical object can be read as it presents a version of reality that informs and blends into a polyphonic panorama.
Seeking to initiate a dialogue with institutions and museums beyond contemporary art, she collaborates with ethnographic collections, libraries, and historical archives. She often produces multiple books or objects with different uses and formats – to explore how they might generate new territories. Weaving her way through the fields of anthropology, philosophy, and literature, Castillo Deball draws inspiration from a wide range of sources as she engages in the exchange of knowledge as a transforming process for everyone involved.
Mariana Castillo Deball (b. 1975, Mexico City, Mexico) lives and works in Berlin.
She has had institutional solo exhibitions at Pivô, São Paulo (2023); MUDEC, Milan (2023); Bloomberg Space, London (2022); SBKM De Vleeshal, Middelburg (2022); Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen, Siegen (2021); MUAC-UNAM, Mexico City (2021); Artium Museum, Vitoria-Gasteiz (2021); Modern Art Oxford, Oxford (2020); ACE Open, Adelaide (2020); Monash University Museum of Art, Caulfield (2019); Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam (2019); New Museum, New York (2019); SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah (2018); Museo Amparo, Puebla (2018); San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco (2016); Musée Régional D’Art Contemporain Languedoc-Roussillon, Sérignan (2015); Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca (MACO), Oaxaca (2015); Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2014); Kunsthalle Lissabon, Lisbon (2014); Chisenhale Gallery, London (2013); Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich (2012); Museo Experimental el Eco, Mexico City (2011); Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach (2010); Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, St. Gallen (2009); Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City (2006); Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Amsterdam (2004); Marres House for Contemporary Culture, Maastricht (2004); Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros, Mexico City (2002), among others.
Her work has been featured in recent group shows at institutions such as Triennale Bruges, Bruges (2024); 24th Biennale of Sidney, Sidney (2024); Architectural Association in London, London (2023); MUMOK, Vienna (2022); Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2022); Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, Paris (2020); Kunsthaus Dresden, Dresden (2020); Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Barcelona (MACBA), Barcelona (2019); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2019); Zentrum für Kunst und Medien (ZKM), Karlsruhe (2019); Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2019); Museo Jumex, Mexico City (2018); Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Baden-Baden (2018); KADIST Foundation, Paris (2017); High Line, New York (2015); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2014); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (2014).
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balal, 2023
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from the series "Cada cosa es Babel" 5, 2023
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Toward and away like the hand, 2023
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Calendar Fall Away 40, 2022
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edo:wa, 2020
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Luck in the double focus, 2020
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Icosahedron, 2017
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What’s the matter with you?, 2017
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Why don’t you say something?, 2017
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Curvas Guerrero Picudo, 2016
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Zoomorph G, 2013
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Zoomorph G Imprint 11, 2013
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Parergon
Mariana Castillo Deball Kirsty Bell, Mariana Castillo Deball, Dario Gamboni and Melanie Roumiguière, 2015softcover, 352 pagesRead more
Publisher: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König
ISBN: 978-3-86335-646-0
Dimensions: 27 x 21 cm -
Ixiptla Volume III
Mariana Castillo Deball, 2015Softcover, 180 pagesRead more
Publisher: Bom Dia Books
ISBN: 978-3-943514-35-3
Dimensions: 19,5 × 27,5 cm -
Ixiptla Volume I
Mariana Castillo Deball, 2014Softcover, 180 pagesRead more
Publisher: Bom Dia Books
ISBN: 978-3-943514-25-4
Dimensions: 19,5 × 27,5 cm -
Estas Ruinas Que Ves / These Ruins You See
Mariana Castillo Deball, 2008Hardcover, 272 pagesRead more
Publisher: Sternberg Press
ISBN: 1933128461
Dimensions: 15,5 × 22,5 cm
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Forgive Us Our Trespasses - Of (Un)Real Frontiers, Of (Im)Moralities and Other Transcendences
Mariana Castillo Deball Sep 25, 2024HKW Haus der Kulturen der Welt
Berlin, Germany
14/09 2024 — 08/12 2024
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The Flames Leave a Feathered Mark on the Clay Spider in the Chamber of Ash and Clay
Mariana Castillo Deball Sep 25, 2024ASU Art Museum
Tempe, USA
29/09 2024 — 27/07 2025
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Pre-Architectures
Mariana Castillo Deball Sep 25, 2024CIVA
Brussels, Belgium
06/11 2024 — 30/03 2025
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Dead, I am Still Paper
Mariana Castillo Deball Aug 8, 2024Tangente St. Pölten
St. Pölten, Austria
03/08 2024 — 06/10 2024
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Spaces of Possibility – Trienniale Brugge
Mariana Castilo Deball Apr 23, 2024Triennale BruggeRead more
Brugge, Belgium
14/04 2024 — 01/09 2024 -
Ten Thousand Suns – 24th Biennale of Sydney
Mariana Castillo Deball Apr 3, 2024Biennale of SydneyRead more
Sydney, Australia
09/03/2024 — 10/06/2024 -
Rituals of the Everyday
Mariana Castillo Deball, Paulo Nazareth Mar 21, 2024Collegium
Arévalo, Spain
05/03 2024 — 01/09 2024 -
Luce dietro tracce incompiute
Mariana Castillo Deball Oct 26, 2023MUDEC
Milan, Italy
19/10 2023 — 07/04 2024
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