Michelle-Marie Letelier is interested in exploitation of minerals, working across topographic changes of a landscape, juxtaposed with the speculation of resources within the current economic framework. She spent her early life in Chuquicamata, the biggest open-pit copper mine in the world, in the Atacama Desert. This served as a starting point in her practice, documenting the town’s burial process through video and photography. Since settling in Berlin, Letelier has focused on copper and coal: minerals which have also become objects themselves in her drawings, paintings, objects and installations. Letelier’s work carries heavy socio-political overtones, especially in times of unveiled globalization, the increasing scarcity of raw materials and the crisis of the neoliberal model.

Michelle-Marie Letelier (born 1977, Rancagua, Chile) obtained her BFA at the Universidad Católica de Chile. Her recent solo exhibitions include Die Feinfühlige Zone, Die Ecke Gallery, Santiago and Doomed Scape,Perlini Arte Gallery, Padua. Her group exhibitions include Magic Block, Stiftelsen 3.14, Bergen and To Seize Matter and Leave a Landscape, X Video and Media Arts Biennial, Museum of Contemporary Art, Santiago. Her videos have been exhibited in several screenings and festivals across the world. In 2005, Letelier participated in the Mercosur Biennial and in 2012 she was awarded the first edition of ORA International Art Prize. Letelier lives and works in Berlin.