Ana Mendes and Kelly Wu will lead a programme to invite an active consideration of the role of museums, the legacy of cultural history and the potency of material objects in shaping shared memory. Set at the Courtauld Institute, where works by both artists are on display as part of the exhibition RE:VISION, the Courtauld’s East Wing Biennial 25/27, the session will open with a panel and participatory discussion moderated by Romy Brill Allen, Director of the Biennial, followed by a film screening and a creative artist-led workshop.
In their process-driven artistic practices, Ana Mendes and Kelly Wu explore the themes of history, memory and identity. Their works in the ‘RE:COLLECT’ section of the Biennial draw attention to questions that destabilise the systems governing material preservation and object ownership. Both artists position cultural memory as a collective construction that remains resonant on a personal level. The People’s Collection (2014–ongoing) by Ana Mendes gathers individual responses to museum and ethnographic objects, revealing the relationship between identity, memory and material, while Kelly Wu’s Slat of Sunlight, Base of my Door (2024–ongoing) comprises doorstops taken from cultural institutions, presented as remnants of acts that challenge the physical and symbolic access to art and culture. For this programme, the artists will share the research and archival resources that inform these projects and their wider practices.
Jointly organised by The East Wing Biennial 25/27, Art Embassy Network and Conduit Art, London, with support from the Instituto Camões, I.P.
Artist Biographes:
Ana Mendes is a writer and visual artist who works in video, performance, photography, installation and sculpture addressing such topics as language, memory and identity. Her work is conceptual, process-based and created with the economy of means. She creates works that are timeless and open-ended, posing more questions than providing answers. Since 2019, the artist has worked regularly in East Asia, namely Japan, Taiwan and South Korea, exploring historical narratives between the East and the West and drawing from the local philosophy of animism and Shintoism. Her work is often described as poetic and minimalist. Ana Mendes has held solo shows at various locations, including Arprim, Montreal (2025); Portugal Embassy Tokyo (2025); Gallery 54, Gothenburg (2024); Das Schaufenster, Seattle (2024), Monade Contemporary, Kyoto (2024), Lewisham Art House, London (2023); Konstepidemin / GIBCA Extended 2021 (Gothenburg International Biennial Contemporary Art). Group shows include the XVII Graphic Triennale Uppsala (2024); Portuguese Sovereign Artist Award, Lisbon (2022), Royal Academy of Art, London, Summer Exhibition (2021); Korean Cultural Centre, New York; Taoyuan International Award, Taoyuan Museum of Fine Art, Taiwan; Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition, Denmark (all 2021). Mendes has been the recipient of numerous art awards, including: Foundation Calouste Gulbenkian International Grant, Lisbon (2025, 2016, 2013); Konstnarsnamnden / IASPIS (2025 – 2019); Taoyuan International Award, Honourable Mention and Audience Choice Award, Taoyuan Museum of Fine Art, Taoyuan, Taiwan, 2021; Artist Revelation Award ADAGP/ MAD Days, finalist, Paris/France, 2019; Jerwood Drawing Prize, second prize winner, London, UK, 2017; Honorable Mention, Prize of the Jury, MAAT Museum/Fuso Festival, Lisbon, Portugal, 2016; MAC International Ulster Bank Prize, finalist, Belfast, UK, 2016; Prize of the Jury Sophiensaele, Festival 100 Grad, winner, Berlin, Germany, 2014; Act-Arriaga Prize, winner, Act Festival, Bilbao, Spain, 2012; Literary Award/ Dramaturgy, winner, City of Albufeira, Portugal, 2009; ‘This is not a competition’, co-winner, Artistas Unidos, Lisbon, Portugal, 2008. She has been the recipient of numerous fellowships, namely: Singapore Art Museum, 2025; Akademie Schloss Solitude 2015/17, Stuttgart, Germany; IASPIS, Stockholm, Sweden, 2017, Foundation Calouste Gulbenkian, Portugal, 2010/11.
Kelly Wu works across the disciplines of sculpture, installation, and performance. Their practice engages with memory and culture through the use of found objects and personal archives. Themes of race, gender, and class recur in the work and are then withheld or obscured by ungenerous, secretive forms. Writing and ‘life-art’ performances support and extend these ideas. Wu was born in Essex to immigrant parents from Beijing. They are currently living and working in London. Recent exhibitions include Missing Angel at Small-Time Project, GLORY BOX at the Shop at Sadie Coles HQ, and the East Wing Biennial at the Courtauld Institute of Art. Wu is reading MA Fine Art at the Slade School of Fine Art after completing their undergraduate degree at Central Saint Martins.
With the support of
