Laura Anderson Barbata
Julia Pastrana regresa a casa (Julia Pastrana: Her Return and Her Roots)
Laura Anderson Barbata lives and works in New York and Mexico City. She served as a professor at the National School of Sculpture, Painting, and Printmaking La Esmeralda (2010–2015), part of Mexico’s National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature (INBAL) and currently teaches in the Art, Culture, and Technology program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Her work has received numerous awards from the INBAL. Since 1992, her practice has focused primarily on social and publicly engaged art, with projects developed in the Venezuelan Amazon, Trinidad and Tobago, Norway, the United States, and Mexico. Her work is held in both private and public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, Mexico City; and Thyssen-Bornemisza Contemporary.
A Catholic Mass (the religion practiced by Julia Pastrana during her lifetime) was held in her memory in Oslo. The repatriation of the Mexican artist Julia Pastrana (1834–1860) from Norway to Mexico included the formal transfer of custody, a funeral Mass, and her burial. She was covered with a ceremonial huipil made of cotton and hair from Indigenous Mexican women, as well as Laura Anderson Barbata’s hair, featuring a coyuchi design embroidered with thread colored with snail dye. The burial became a collective performance carried out by all those present, during which thousands of flowers—sent from around the world—were placed over the coffin and grave. This act served to receive, dignify, and honor Julia Pastrana, and to bring closure to her long and painful journey back to her homeland, 153 years after her death.
courtesy Laura Anderson Barbata
Document media
Photography, Text
Issue date
2013
To be seen in
re.act.feminism #4 - Archival Chain Reactions, MSUM, Ljubljana, 2026