JMA Matriarchive in Resistance

White Box NY

The JMA Matriarchive is a documentary collection preserved by the Mexican architect and author of Lebanese origin Josefina Mena Abraham. Between 1967 and 1976, she supported various social movements in England, Portugal, Africa and South America. She worked transdisciplinary linking art, architecture and community work. The archiving method has been created specifically for her documentary collection, its methodology has a Feminist – intersectional perspective based on oral history techniques which allow for the archive to be a place in flux, under permanent construction, adding localities.

While the project to be executed at WhiteBox Art Center (WBX) focuses on the Archive of Professor Mena, its main objective rests on its use locally—in this case, New York City—as well as a form of activation, in turn, allowing for the rethinking of the innate relationship between architecture and ‘community. Chiefly for this reason archival and exhibition techniques are employed as activation devices ….(continue reading)