Jessica Mitrani: Traveling Lady

The Screening Room presents “Traveling Lady”, a solo exhibition by Columbian-born artist Jessica Mitrani curated by Francine Birbragher. The installation conjures the daring spirit of Nellie Bly, the nineteenth-century American journalist who circled the globe in seventy-two days, carrying little more than the clothes on her back and a jar of cold cream.

Originally presented as a live performance with film “Traveling Lady” has been reimagined for The Screening Room as a site-specific installation. A selection of videos are be projected onto three surfaces: a long curved screen with Rossy de Palma as Traveling Lady; a suspended canvas bag, and an eight-foot-tall coat illuminated by patterns, colors and textures evoking a voyage around the world.

The black leather bag that Nellie Bly carried with her is also on display, open to reveal its contents: three items of silk clothing, a jar of cold cream, a porcelain box for the perfect pill, a tea cup, a leather manual, and a hopelessness scale for measuring emotions.

Transcending the realms of the psychological, the physical, and the cosmic, iconic Spanish actress Rossy de Palma embodies this timeless figure in Jessica Mitrani’s fantastic and subversive world.