Detail of Ana Mendez’s “The Fortress.”

Ana Mendez has done some exciting stuff in her young career. One of the new generation who blurs lines among disciplines, it’s hard to shoe-horn her work into any one category. She is a performance artist and trained dancer, and within this context will likely be where you have seen her before. Mendez has been part of the troupe performing the acclaimed contemporary dances from rising national dance star Rosie Herrera, including debut works at the Arsht Center.

She’s worked with other local top choreographers such as Octavio Campos and Ray Sullivan, and has created new works for the incubator Here and Now Festival from Miami Light. With visual artist Federico Nessi, she founded the experimental performance collaborative Psychic Youth, which has performed at the de la Cruz Collection. Lately, Mendez has hooked up to work with Spinello Projects.

On Friday night at the Bas Fisher Invitational alternative art space downtown (a multiple Knight Arts grantee), Mendez will create “The Fortress” along with Richard Martinez. It is dubbed a “sculptural installation and gathering place” for a utopian future when man and woman have reintegrated with nature (Mendez also had a residency in the Everglades art program).

This fortress will also serve as a teaser for projects to come, the first one being BFI’s latest WEIRD MIAMI installment. Mendez will lead the bus tour that will include a site-specific performance on April 13. Then she will also unveil a new work in progress for the next Here and Now, which takes place in May this year.

The Fortress opens Friday, April 4th with a reception from 6-9 p.m. and runs through May 31 at BFI, 100 N.E. 11th St., Miami. Mendez’s WEIRD MIAMI bus tour takes off from BFI on Sunday, April 13; go to www.basfisherinvitational.com for more information.