Mignon Mangel/ Minimalism

Mignon Mangel, 28 years old, works as a freelancing interdisciplinary artist, director, and performer, currently based in Stuttgart, Germany. After studying musical theatre and theatre studies, she worked as a performer and assistant director on countless theatre productions; for the last two years, she had a permanent position as an assistant director at Schauspiel Stuttgart. Since summer 2026, she works full-time as an artist and director, also with interdisciplinary interests beyond performative arts.

Here I present my series „Ballet Bodies“ involving eight miniatures – a journey of self-determination in small format. As a base, I use ballerina motifs in a minimalist line art aesthetic and add an individual statement to each, reflecting and criticizing limitations, shame, and censorship of female bodies. I intentionally choose the image of the ballet dancer, who frames an excessive idealization of the female body. But it is in general about how female bodies must be, look, move, which functions they carry, and even more: what they must not be. And this is how I portray them: how bodies shall not be (from a patriarchal viewpoint). I choose motifs that criticize the (emotional) weight female bodies have to carry, and this way question and break beauty standards. But the series also shows a formal transformation, more and more withdrawing from stylistic expectations, turning to freer, more abstract ways of expression and, in this way, searching for artistic freedom. This is why the order of the painting is relevant. As a technical base, I use liner and watercolour on paper, experimenting with different materials in addition, such as wool, silk paper, and rhinestones. The work is overall a search. For a bodily experience, for itself, for a meaning. For a change. For style and expression. For freedom.