Mili Presman was born in Argentina in 1956. She lives and works in Paris (Cité Montmartre aux Artistes). She left her country for Spain during the military dictatorship at the age of 21, interrupting her architectural studies to subsequently settled permanently in France. In 1981, she enrolled in the ceramics section at the Duperré School, and continuing in 1985 at the Ecole National Supérieure des Beaux-Art in Paris, under of the sculptor Georges Jeanclos. In 1988, she was part of the group “Copy Art” working on the transformation of images, and obtained a degree in visual arts from the University of Paris VIII. Mili Presman has been exhibiting regularly in Paris and abroad since 2008.

Mili Presman’s practice navigate between the states of dream and reality. Each of Mili’s paintings tells us a story anchored in everyday life, where the figure of the woman is the protagonist. Women who live through different stages: The child who, innocently, lives with the illusion of a universe full of possibilities. The adult discovering the paths available, associating decisions and uncertainties, whilst getting caught by the risk of decision. The woman of old age, infused with the memories of the distant past that returns in dreams.

Mili emphasises the tensions between the past and the present, between reality and the imaginary  by playing with the opposition of black and white and colour. Her latest project, “En nombre de ellas”, was inspired by the history of Buen Pastor. An old prison for women in Córdoba, Argentina, symbolic of the current historical context, undeniably marked by women’s struggle. The work creates a discussion between the prison, as a space loaded with memories and stories of captivity, and contemporary women’s groups fighting in the streets for their rights. The work aims to build bridges between the history of female politicisation and to generate a dialogue between the twinned struggles of now and then.

Mili Presman’s project creates a platform for her to address through her paintings the struggles for women’s human rights, abortion, sexual violence, as well as the memory of the disappeared, both in the past in France and in the present in Argentina.

Creation as a response to adversity, as a reflection in order to exist.