Valeria Mendez was born in Mendoza, Argentina, in 1969. She is a journalist and photographer with a degree in Social Communication from the National University of Cuyo (Mendoza). Since 2000, she has worked and collaborated with various print media and publishing houses in Argentina, and has participated in 14 photographic exhibitions.
 
In a world where the real and the tangible seem to be fading away, her artistic research presents nature as the most captivating and authentic experience — not as a simple landscape, but by scrutinising its constituent elements with a gaze that oscillates between the microscopic and the universal.

Her aesthetic approach focuses on natural resources, and she works with photography combining analogue and digital techniques. She is continuously developing different series, including Étude Arbre, Pierres, Oiseaux and Montagnes, which explore geographical landscapes, their compositions, geometries and textures.

Residency project
La Rébellion des Insectes (The Insect Rebellion) poetically and metaphorically highlights the slow and dramatic disappearance of insects in the face of urban expansion. The work consists of large-format images of buildings and metropolitan architectural structures, modified and merged with the Bichos series.

The characters in the saga, the insects, are first depicted in full flight, preparing their rebellion. Then, through an exaggeration of scale, these insect characters reclaim the urban landscapes. It is a visual manifesto, a call to raise awareness of the need to value and protect ecosystems and biodiversity.