Mariaelena Roqué

Mariaelena Roqué (Tarragona, 1952)

A Catalan-Venezuelan artist, she is a key figure in the Catalan contemporary avant-garde. A performer, visual and poetic stage artist, dancer and set designer, she develops an interdisciplinary practice conceived as a “work in progress”, in a continuous process of psychosocial and poetic resignification. Her work takes shape through expo-instal-actions that bring together short films, performative actions, costume-characters, sculpture, photography and installation.

Her work explores the boundaries of conceptual art from a feminist perspective, articulating a distinctive language that exposes the “self” through both body and psyche. She questions gender roles and the structures imposed by patriarchal society, particularly through her numerous AutoRetratsRetratats, among which the project UnaDonaUna stands out. Developed throughout her career, the project has taken shape across a range of visual and plastic media.

Her work has been presented in museums, theatres and festivals in cities including Berlin, Paris, Venice, Istanbul, Caracas, Edinburgh, Barcelona, Madrid and Lyon. Among her most significant exhibitions and installations are Cópula Metronómica, at Sala Metrònom in Barcelona (1987); Despulles inoxidables, at Fundació Joan Miró (1997); the retrospective Mariaelena Roqué despulla Carles Santos, presented at the Museu Tèxtil i d’Indumentària in Barcelona (2006); Sous le signe d’Eros, at the Musée des Tissus et des Arts Décoratifs in Lyon (2010); Les Insolites, at the Centre National du Costume de Scène in Moulins (2011); and the major solo exhibition Silenci despullat. UnaDonaUna, organised by the Museu d’Art Modern de Tarragona (2025). In 2026, she presented the installation Era una blavor d’un blau tan blau que de tan blau esgarrifava… at the Museu de l’Ebre in Tortosa.

She has received, among other distinctions, awards from the S-8 Film Festival and the Barcelona Theatre Critics, as well as the FAD Awards and the Serra d’Or Award.