Mercedes Cuman is a versatile artist who expresses herself through different forms and techniques. Starting in 2022, under the guidance of Gianluca Craca, she resumes working with the engraving medium, a technique she had set aside for several years. The Artist begins to experiment on zinc plates using acids and inks, and, captivated by the "surprise factor" that occurs in each engraving despite technical principles, she will never abandon the medium. Cuman's prints are not mechanical repetitions. They arise from the skillful hand of the Artist and, although they are concretely generated by a press, they are at the same time conditioned by an unpredictable set of variables that make each individual work unique, full of its own life, in a mix of seriality and uniqueness.

The event at Manifiesto Blanco presents a project that the Artist has been dedicated to for some time now: the Tarot cards, here realized in etching. Like many other artists, starting from the late Gothic period, she has been fascinated by this subject that arouses curiosity and attention due to the variety of symbols and meanings represented. From esotericism to modern spirituality, passing through psychology and storytelling, Tarot cards have always interested multiple disciplines in a transversal way, such as art, cinema, fashion, and music.

Mercedes Cuman does not delve into the esoteric aspects of the Tarot cards, but interprets them as if they were an illustrated book, an oracle book to consult to delve into one's unconscious. The images indeed activate the intuition of those who look at them, eliciting further images that lead to interpreting events from a different perspective, to identify alternatives that would not appear rationally feasible. In the Artist's view, the cards are therefore a mirror of our consciousness, our desires, a different and unconventional way to reflect out loud.

In the proposed works, the specific Western iconographic code of the major arcana is reinterpreted by Mercedes Cuman in a free and personal way with a curious and attentive look towards nature and the feminine. Each of the 21 tables (plus the number 0, the FOOL) is indeed characterized by a natural or landscape element, such as plants, animals, or stars. One of the most striking examples of this reprocessing process is the WORLD (Arcanum no. 21), renamed by the Artist as Gaia, in its purest meaning of "planet earth" as a living entity, and not a place of conquest or exploitation. The EMPRESS card (Arcanum no. 3) is instead an explicit homage to the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, an undisputed symbol of feminine art. Finally, Cuman transforms the POPE card (Arcanum no. 5) by portraying the Shaman Kopenawa, leader of the Yanomami people who, in mystical connection with the spirits of the earth, has long been fighting for the defense of the rights of indigenous peoples and the preservation of the Amazon forest.

Mercedes Cuman lives and works in Milan. She graduated in Set Design from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts. Co-founder of the Feminist Art group "Le pezze," she is the author, along with her artist friends, of the volume "Ci vediamo mercoledì, gli altri giorni ci immaginiamo" published by Mazzotta in 1978. In the 1980s, she collaborated as an illustrator at the Alchimia Design Studio (Milan, 1976-1992). Illustration remained her main activity throughout the 1990s, through collaborations with publishers such as Mondadori, Fabbri, Condé Nast, Ed. Universo, Ragazza In. Cuman participated in the exhibitions "L'altro sguardo. Fotografe italiane 1965-2015" (October 2016 - January 2017 - Triennale di Milano) and "Il soggetto imprevisto - 1978 - Arte e Femminismo in Italia" (March 2019 - Frigoriferi Milanesi, Milan). In 2021, she illustrated the volume "Cavoli a merenda - ricette intraprendenti per cuoche incompetenti" by Laura Lepetit, founder of the historic publishing house La Tartaruga. Since 2010, she has been working as an Art teacher in public schools.