Mondongo, Argentine artist group created in 1999, formed by Juliana Laffitte and Manuel Mendanha. Their work has always privileged the image, tightening and deepening its impact through the selection of materials in terms of their content, depending on what best reinforces the concept of his work. Mondongo was commissioned by the royal Spanish family to make official portraits of Queen Sofía, King Juan Carlos and Prince Felipe (Cumbre Portrait Series, 2003); they made them from colored mirrors referring to the colonial trade of goods. Thus, they chose cookies to play porn images extracted from internet, extended and transformed into a sort of pornographic candy for the suburban housewife (Black Series, 2004); plasticine for a contemporary, ironic and version post Freudian of the tale of Little Red Riding Hood (Red Series, 2004 – 2007); or cotton threads for soft texture of their own sex scenes (Love Series, 2006). Their work tries to develop a sense from the chaotic mass of objects and references which constitutes our daily field.
In the show Merca (Blow; 2005), their artwork was shown through three-dimensional fragments of the dollar bill, embroidered using thread and nails, floating in the air, like frozen objects of desire. In 2013 they held a solo show in Buenos Aires, Mondongo Argentina at the Museum of Modern Art, which was considered by critics as one of the best of the year. They displayed part of the Intimate Portraits Series (2005-2015), Cajitas Series (2011-2012), and the Argentine Series (2009-2012) Part of this exhibition is currently on view at MAXXI Museo Nazionale Delle Arti del XXI Secolo in Rome, with three works from the twelve Skulls Series (2009-2013).
Works by Mondongo belong to public and private collections worldwide. They have exhibited in Buenos Aires, San Juan de Puerto Rico, Madrid, London, Brussels, Zurich, Basel, Rome, Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, Beijing and Bangkok among others.
