Trained as a painter, Mari Chordà is a multidisciplinary artist, poet, feminist activist, and promoter of numerous collective social and cultural projects. Educated at the Escola Superior de Belles Arts de Sant Jordi in Barcelona, the representations of vaginas she began painting in 1964 were pioneering in the history of art. Her pictorial language was influenced by her stay in Paris between 1965 and 1967, incorporating an emphasis on colour with very vivid, flat tones and non-figurative sinuous forms, in close conversation with Nouveau Réalisme and Pop Art. As a result of her personal experience, Chordà addressed themes such as sexuality and motherhood, far ahead of the feminist avant-garde of the 1970s. From 1969, she began creating her mobile sculptures, designed to be interacted with, creating ever-changing forms. In the early 1990s, she revisited her initial artistic output, incorporating certain references to the natural world – especially the marine world – which she calls "the female cetaceans".

As an activist and feminist, she has participated in multiple collective projects such as Lo Llar in Amposta (which she founded in 1968) or the feminist bar/library LaSal, a unique place in Spain, a meeting point where legal and health advice could be shared and received. LaSal, co-founded by Chordà in 1977 in Barcelona, led to the creation of a publishing house under the same name, active from 1978 to 1990, with the aim of making women's writing visible. Chordà is the author of the poetry collections ... i moltes altres coses (1977), Quadern del cos i l'aigua (1978), Umbilicals (2000), Locomotora infidel pel passat (1988) and No com un so (2022). In 2024, a comprehensive retrospective of her work was presented at the Museu d'Art Modern de la Diputació de Tarragona and at the MACBA Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona. Chordà's work is found in the museum collections of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya and MACBA, among others.