Laura Anderson Barbata

Laura Anderson Barbata (born 1958) is a Mexican contemporary artist.

Early life and education Laura Anderson Barbata was born 1958 in Mexico City, Mexico. She moved to Sinaloa, where her father was a restaurateur, and spent the early part of her childhood in Mazatlán with little or no access to museums. She studied sculpture and engraving at the School of Visual Arts at the University of Rio de Janeiro and architecture in Mexico City.

Work Anderson has exhibited in the United States, Mexico, Europe, and South America. She is in the permanent collection and has shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; The Museum of Modern Art, Mexico City, Mexico; and the Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, among others. In return, she taught the community how to make books and paper from local resources.

Transcommunality In 2002, while working as an artist-in-residence in Trinidad and Tobago, Barbata was introduced to the founder of the Keylemanjahro School of Arts and Culture in Port-of-Spain. The school hosted an after school stilt dancing program open to all kids, intended to keep children out of trouble while also engaging them in the cultural tradition of stilt dancing to prepare for the annual NCBA Junior Carnival Parade. Barbata worked with Keylemanjahro for 5 years alongside the students and parents to create costumes for their performances.

The group worked with little to no resources and relied exclusively on the help of parents in the neighborhood. The children had been creating their costumes by painting their bodies with toxic house paint. Additionally, students participated in carnival with the same presentation every year, which excluded them from competing for character awards. Barbata suggest that the children could develop and create their own costumes to learn about the environment and other cultures, and worked with Keylemanjahro to discuss possible themes and design of characters for the kids to portray and compete.

Julia Pastrana In 2003, Barbata learned about Julia Pastrana when she was invited to collaborate on designs for the New York premiere of the play The True History of the Tragic Life and the Triumphant Death of Julia Pastrana, the Ugliest Woman in the World by Shaun Prendergast. Barbata felt deeply moved by Pastrana's story and drew a connection to her own childhood experience growing up in the same area of Mexico as Pastrana and dancing for money. Barbata's ultimate dream goal was that Pastrana should go back to Mexico and be buried.

In 2012, Governor Mario López Valdez of Sinaloa joined Barbata's cause and petitioned for Pastrana's repatriation. López Valdez sent a letter to the National Committee for Ethical Evaluation on Human Remains, NESH, to request for the repatriation of Julia Pastrana to her native state for burial. His letter was accompanied by a letter by Barbata that included the moral, ethical and social justifications for Pastrana's return to Mexico for burial. NESH responded to the repatriation petition with a document recommending that Julia Pastrana be repatriated to México.

The University of Oslo and the Institute of Basic Medicine of the University of Oslo received NESH's recommendation, a formal petition from López Valdez's, as well as a letter from Barbata herself. The university accepted Julia Pastrana's repatriation to Mexico, but with the conditions that she never be exhibited again, that she be buried and not cremated, and that she be given funeral services following her Catholic faith.

On February 7, 2013, Barbata confirmed the identity of Pastrana's body in Oslo before the coffin was sealed. Ms. Barbata and a University of Oxford forensic anthropologist, Nicholas Márquez-Grant, noticed that Pastrana's feet still had bolts and metal rods that were used for exhibiting her body. The bolts were removed and placed at the foot of her coffin. Pastrana's coffin was transported by plane from Oslo to Culiacán where she was welcomed with a military arrival. The following day, on February 12, the coffin of Julia Pastrana was transported from Culiacán to Sinaloa de Leyva. She was welcomed with official ceremonies and a funeral mass, then taken to the Municipal Cemetery following local traditions. Julia Pastrana's coffin was covered in flowers and buried. Pastrana was dressed in an indigenous huipil made by Francisca Palafox, a master weaver from Oaxaca

Selected exhibitions

Solo exhibitions/performances Intervention: Indigo. Museo Textil de Oaxaca, Oaxaca, México. (2018) Original Is Never Finished. Adidas film Shoot. New York. In collaboration with the Brooklyn Jumbies. Director: Monty Marsh. (2018) Tiempo Local: arte y activismos para una memoria fronteriza. Laura Anderson Barbata: La extraordinaria historia de Julia Pastrana, Centro Cultural España. Santiago de Chile (2018) Intervention: Raphael Red. Performance in collaboration with the Brooklyn Jumbies. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston (2017) Helen Louise Textile Collection Gallery, University of Wisconsin, Madison (2016) The Quixotic Days and Errant Nights of the Knight Errant Don Quijote (character design), Amphibian Stage Production, Fort Worth, TX. ( Caribbean: Crossroads of the World, Perez Art Museum, Miami, FL; El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY; Queens Museum of Art, Queens, NY; Studio Museum Harlem, New York, NY. (2015) Social Paper: Hand Papermaking in the Context of Socially Engaged Art, Center for Book and Paper Arts, Columbia College Chicago, IL FOCO14, Festival de las Artes ARC, Coquimbo, Chile 59 (2015) X Bienal Monterrey, FEMSA, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo Monterrey, México Invitational: Twenty Jurors, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, Il Second Generation, Columbia College Chicago, Chicago, Il (2012) Mujeres detrás de la lente: 100 años de creación fotográfica en México, CECUT, Tijuana, México (2011) AIO: Art in the Open Philadelphia, Schuylkill Banks Park, Philadelphia, PA Ciudadanas (collaboration with the Museo de Mujeres Artistas Mexicanas), Museo Universitario del Chopo, Mexico City (2010) Hecho en casa: Una aproximación a las prácticas objetuales en el arte mexicano contemporáneo, Museo de Arte Moderno. México City The Muhheakantuk in Focus, Wave Hill, Bronx, NY The Art of Personal Adornment, Inez and Milton Shaver Gallery, The Dahl Arts Center, Rapid City, SD (2009) Cardinal Points (Puntos Cardinales): A Survey of Contemporary Latino and Latin American Art from the Sprint Nextel Art Collection, Itinerant exhibition, USA (2007-2009)

Selected awards, grants, and honors Miembro del Sistema Nacional para Creadores, Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, CONACULTA, México (2015–18) Artist in Residence, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA (2016) Women in the Arts Award, Celebrating the Genius of Women, Orlando, FL (2016) The Current Fellow, Thyssen-Bornemisza Contemporary Art, Vienna, Austria (2015) Honorary Fellow, Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies (LACIS), University of Wisconsin, Madison (2015) Arts Institute Interdisciplinary Artist in Residence, University of Wisconsin, Madison (2015) Segundo Concurso de Fotografía Contemporánea de México, Photography Award, Fundación Mexicana de Cine y Artes, A.C., México (2013) Selection Committee, Visual Arts Grants, Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte, FONCA-CONACULTA, México (2013) Advisory Board, Museos Vivos, México (2013) Residency, Interdisciplinary Arts Department and Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper, IL (2012) Advisory Council, Artistic Dreams International, New York, NY (2011) Miembro del Sistema Nacional para Creadores, Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, CONACULTA, MX (2010–13) Robin Fund Residency, Center for Book & Paper / Interdisciplinary Arts Dept., Columbia College, Chicago, IL (2010)