Mexico at #RoadMAP21

The Mexican artist Marisa Polin presents the abstract drawings “Mind and Body after Isolation” at St Peter’s Church in Bethnal Green, she describes her works as tree tattoos. The centenarian tree trunks at the Church Garden with their individual shapes, colours and textures are a big influence in these drawings. She uses washi-, masking- and gaffer tape as a medium for the geometric works made in situ. The artist wishes to inspire the local community and visitors with colourful and the sometimes secretive drawings. It is a work in process and if you come to visit the exhibition you may find her continuing her work at the friendly garden of St Peter’s. Everybody is invited and a large part of the drawings can be seen from the street during closing hours. DM instagram.com/marisapolinart for more details and info on the guided visits.

In its first phase, the art project RoadMAP 21 curated by Vanya Balogh features four artists: Mexico’s Marisa Polin, Toni Gallagher, Gzillion Artist and Vanya Balogh in three London locations NW8, W8, E2. Over the coming months, new public spaces and artists will be added.

St Peter’s
Bethnal Green
Saint Peter’s Close
London E2 7AE

Marisa Polin is a visual artist and filmmaker. She was born in Mexico City and lives between London and The Hague. For the last 5 years, she has lived opposite St Peter’s church. Polin has participated with Vanya Balogh in over 30 international projects, with whom she also co-curated the exhibition Empire II at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Oaxaca (MACO), Mexico in 2019.

During the lockdown, she finally started making regular use of public spaces for her artwork. These are some of the #treetatoos series in 2020-2021: In The Hague, she used the trees of the popular Malieveld as a canvas for the “Empty Plinths”. These drawings were inspired by the hope brought by the recent Black Lives Matter demonstrations. Later in the Summer, she took over a small section of The Hague Woods as an open-air studio. The project “Creatures of the Forest”, which draws on the appreciation of seasonal nature, became a well-visited exhibition. She was also invited to work at a private space in Lazio Italia, where she was inspired by the Circe myths and her feminine power. “Magic Garden of Circe” gave a colourful and magical transformation to the relative young garden. She just recently had a flash exhibition at Haggerston Park in East London entitled: “We Can Be Us Just For One Day”. This show reflects on the traditional busy agendas and apparent control of our lives that has become freer, less fixed, and full of unknowns during the pandemic.

Follow Marisa here.