Michelle-Marie Letelier

Michelle-Marie Letelier (Chile, 1977) lives and works in Berlin.

Her work orchestrates transformations of natural resources, alongside extensive wide-ranging, interdisciplinary research into the landscapes where their exploitation and speculation take place. Through her work, she places together different epochs, regions and societies, examining political-economic, historical and cultural aspects.

Since establishing in Berlin in 2007, she has focused her research on five resources: coal, copper, saltpetre, wind and, more recently, salmon. By applying, mixing and constellating their properties—such as electrical conductivity, crystallisation and agency—, chemical and physical transformation processes produce the artworks themselves, as well as their poiesis, beyond the extractive industry and its forms of control.

Michelle-Marie Letelier obtained her Bachelor of Arts from the Universidad Católica de Chile in 2000 and has participated in postgraduate programmes such as Goldrausch Künstlerinnenprojekt art IT (Berlin) and as guest student in the Experimental Media Design studies at the Universität der Künste (Berlin).

Her work has been shown internationally in biennials, galleries, museums and institutions, among others: Or...

2007-2008 Experimental Media Design (Guest Student), Prof. Maria Vedder, UDK, Berlin

2003 Video Tutorial Program, Prof. Guillermo Cifuentes, UNIACC, Santiago, Chile

1996-2000 Bachelor of Fine Arts (BA), Pontificia Universidad Católica, Santiago, Chile

Selected solo Exhibitions:

2021
-AM I ANCIENT OR A HUMAN-MADE MACHINE?, Or Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
2019
-5 KILOGRAMS OF EYE-OPENER, Small Projects, Tromsø, Norway
2016
-UNPREDICTABLE ATLAS, Tête, Berlin, Germany
2014
-CALICHE WINDS, El Museo de Los Sures, New York, USA
2012
-DOOMED SCAPE, Perlini Arte Gallery, Padua, Italy
2009
-DIE FEINFÜHLIGEZONE, Die Ecke Gallery, Santiago, Chile
2005
-MOMENTS, School of Arts salon, UNIACC
-DESCENSO, Espacio-G Gallery, Valparaíso, Chile
2004
-ERASE, Bech Gallery, Santiago. CODELCO Borough Building, Calama, Chile

Selected Group Exhibitions:

2021
-VIDEONALE.18, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany
-ULTRAMARIN, Stanislavsky Electrotheatre, Moscow, Russia
-SOCIETY OF NATURE, OnCurating, Zürich, Switzerland
-THE ARCTIC ARTS FESTIVAL - I AM A MULTITUDE, Harstad, Norway
-(upcoming) ZIN EX, Tabakalera, Spain
2020
-DOWN TO EARTH, Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany
2019
-SCREEN CITY BIENNIAL, Stavanger, Norway
2018
-METALMORFOSIS, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile
-VISIONES LATERALES, Centro Nacional de Arte Contemporáneo Cerrillos, Santiago, Chile

2017
-ABOUT TRANSLATION, Kommunale Galerie Charlottenbur...