Mabe Bethônico is an artist, researcher and professor. Her work is particularly centered around the history of mining and its consequential environmental and societal impacts. Projects explore the cultural, economic, and political transformations caused by extractive activities, utilizing archives and field documentation. She has interacted with various collections, including those at the Eisenbibliothek in Schlatt, the Museum of Ethnography in Geneva, and the Imperial College in London. She has also worked with materials from Brazilian archives, such as the Mining sector of the Ministry of Labor and Employment. She is member of the international group of artists and theoreticians “World of Matter,” initiated in 2010.
Mabe Bethônico’s artistic practice encompasses a diverse array of tools and dynamics centered around the sharing of knowledge. These take shape through mediums such as books, posters, installations, objects, and live presentations. Within her work, she delves into institutional matters and the intricate process of memory construction and activation. Currently, she holds teaching positions at ENSP Arles [École nationale supérieure de la photographie] and at HEAD – Genève. From 2002 to 2019, she served as a professor at the Fine Arts School of the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil. During the period spanning 2018 to 2021, she engaged as a guest researcher at ESAAA – École Supérieure d’Art Annecy Alps, France, as part of the project “Effondrement des Alpes”, financed by the European Union in a French-Swiss partnership.
She participated in the 27th and 28th São Paulo Biennials and in the 17th Architecture Biennial in Venice in 2021. She has shown at the Museum of Modern Art in São Paulo, the Antioquia Museum in Medellín, at the Kunstverein Munich, Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, Musée d’Art Moderne de Lyon, Malba in Buenos Aires, amongst others. Performed conferences, or readings, were presented in Sesc Pompeia, São Paulo, Universidade de Brasilia, Universidade de São Paulo, Concordia University – Montreal, Tel Aviv Museum, São Paulo Biennial, Fundação Joaquim Nabuco – Recife, Nottingham Contemporary, amongst others.
