ResumoEste artigo aborda as questões acionadas pelo trabalho da artista cubana-americana Ana Mendieta, que tem grande parte da sua obra composta por performances elaboradas exclusivamente para a câmera e pelo que a própria artista denominou como earth-body-works. Através das suas estratégias de representação baseadas no desaparecimento do corpo feminino, Mendieta chama a nossa atenção para as violências e apagamentos legitimados por meio do estabelecimento de identidades fixas -étnicas e de gênero -no interior dos discursos hegemônicos de poder. Serão exploradas as noções de performance como instrumento para transmissão de conhecimento e memória cultural, de performatividade como fator constitutivo das categorias de identidade e, ainda, de arquivo, repertório e acontecimento ao vivo no esforço de problematizar como as temáticas do exílio e do feminino, regulares na arte de Mendieta, atingem uma dimensão profundamente política a partir das suas proposições artísticas que integram a fotografia com a arte performática. Palavras-chaveAna Mendieta; fotografia; feminilidade; performance; performatividade AbstractThis article addresses the questions triggered by the work of the Cuban-American artist Ana Mendieta, who has a large part of her work composed exclusively of camera performances and what she termed earth-body-works. Through her strategies of representation based on the disappearance of the female body, Mendieta draws our attention to the legitimized violence and erasures through the establishment of fixed identities -ethnic and gender -within the hegemonic discourses of power. The notions of performance as an instrument for transmission of knowledge and cultural memory, of performativity as a constitutive factor of the categories of identity, as well as of archive, repertory and live event will be explored in the effort to problematize as the themes of exile and feminine, regular in the art of Mendieta, reach a deeply political dimension based on their artistic propositions that integrate photography with performance art. Keywords Ana Mendieta; photography; feminility; performance; performativity 1 "Nem aqui nem lá" foi uma expressão utilizada por Jane Blocker para se referir à obra Isla, de Mendieta, conforme veremos ao longo do nosso artigo.

This article addresses the questions triggered by the work of the Cuban-American artist Ana Mendieta, who has a large part of her work composed exclusively of camera performances and what she termed earth-body-works. Through her strategies of representation based on the disappearance of the female body, Mendieta draws our attention to the legitimized violence and erasures through the establishment of fixed identities – ethnic and gender – within the hegemonic discourses of power. The notions of performance as an instrument for transmission of knowledge and cultural memory, of performativity as a constitutive factor of the categories of identity, as well as of archive, repertory and live event will be explored in the effort to problematize as the themes of exile and feminine, regular in the art of Mendieta, reach a deeply political dimension based on their artistic propositions that integrate photography with performance art.