For Argentine artist duo Vanesa Galdeano and Anali Chanquia, better known as MEDIANERAS, creating a mural honoring Pina Bausch—the late, legendary German dancer and choreographer—meant translating movement into something spatial and experiential. The duo is known for site-specific works that transform architecture into an active visual field rather than a passive backdrop.
“We translated Pina Bausch’s language of movement and dance-theatre starting from a key idea: allowing the body to expand upon itself and enter into dialogue with the space that contains it,” the artists tell My Modern Met.
The mural sits on a recessed wall at Kohlenstraße 73 in Wuppertal, Germany. The site functions as a parking area and transitional zone, a setting the artists intentionally embraced. Instead of presenting a fixed image, the work uses anamorphosis, revealing the portrait only from a precise viewpoint. From elsewhere, the figure stretches and fragments across the surface.
“Anamorphosis enabled us to work with this tension between presence and transformation,” MEDIANERAS explains. “From other angles it becomes distorted, much like movement does on stage.”
Architecture plays a central role in the composition. The sloped plane of the wall, along with its edges and openings, shapes how the figure appears in space. Rather than resting on the structure, the image seems to emerge through it, turning the site into a kind of urban stage.
A flowing scarf extends outward from the figure, visually linking the portrait to the surrounding street. The clothing, inspired by Bausch’s rehearsal attire, contains a network of lines that create depth and rhythm. These graphic elements suggest motion without depicting it literally.
“These lines reinforce the sense of depth, vibration, and continuity of movement,” the artists note, pointing to the space that exists between the image, the architecture, and the viewer.
The mural’s relationship to Wuppertal was equally important. Rather than standing apart from the city, the work draws from its immediate surroundings. The artists based their color choices on tones already present in nearby buildings, allowing the painted forms to blend naturally into the neighborhood.
“When we work on a mural, the site is never merely a surface. We consider the viewpoint, but also the identity of the surroundings, the urban scale, the light, and especially the color palette that defines the neighborhood. In this case, the existing architecture was decisive.”
Because of its placement, the mural becomes part of everyday routines. People often encounter it in passing, and the image shifts as viewers move across the space. This changing perspective shapes how the work is experienced.
For MEDIANERAS, the interaction reflects something essential about Pina Bausch’s legacy. Her work resisted fixed meanings and unfolded through lived experiences. The mural echoes that philosophy by requiring movement, attention, and time.
“We hope that, when encountering this work in their daily routines, viewers first feel a presence: Pina as a deeply human figure and, at the same time, something almost intangible, like movement itself,” the pair explains. “We want viewers to surrender to that illusion, to enjoy the sensation that the wall opens up and breathes.”
By transforming a functional wall into an image that unfolds through motion, MEDIANERAS invites viewers to experience the city differently. In doing so, the mural suggests that art, like dance, comes alive through participation.
An anamorphic mural by MEDIANERAS transforms a quiet Wuppertal street into a living tribute to Pina Bausch.
Designed to shift with movement, the artwork invites passersby to experience dance, memory, and perspective in everyday urban space.
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My Modern Met granted permission to feature photos by MEDIANERAS.
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