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Melina Aguad (b. 1990, Santiago, Chile) is a visual artist whose practice interrogates themes of belonging, identity, and the relationship between land, body, and memory. Rooted in the poetics of migration, her work emerges as a means of navigating cultural dislocation, ancestral connections, and the interplay of identity and heritage.

 

Her inquiry is shaped by feminist perspectives, examining the body as a critical locus of power, resistance, and transformation. Drawing from her Palestinian ancestry, her Chilean upbringing, and lived experiences in exile, she explores how the body becomes an archive of memory and rupture, holding codes of identity and belonging that transcend the limitations of time. This somatic exploration serves as a bridge to understanding the self in relation to broader cultural, political, and spiritual landscapes. Her work interrogates how structures of power inscribe themselves onto the body and explores the possibilities for reclamation, renewal, and agency through movement and rituals.

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Expanding into metaphysical realms, her work contemplates how land functions as a space of spiritual resonance and collective memory, transcending the build-in perceptions imposed by society. Her engagement with collective ritual reflects a commitment to understanding the cyclical and interdependent relationship between humans and the land. Her work is a meditation on the pursuit of home, conceived not as a fixed place but as a state of being—one that is continuously negotiated.

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