CV

Curriculum Vitae

Citámbulos is a collective of urban researchers, writers, curators and art managers based in Mexico City who believe that the arts, in dialogue with other disciplines, are a gateway for research, thought and transformation both of ourselves and of the (urban) world surrounding us. Since 2003, the collective has produced books, exhibitions, conferences and dérives focusing on a multidisciplinary and street-level view of cities in general and Mexico City in particular. As an acknowledged platform for artistic, academic and community exchange, Citámbulos continues to share their expertise on the Mexican megalopolis and its urban phenomena with a wide-spread public.

Artistic urban research and curatorial projects include Citámbulos: Journey through the Looking Glass / Journey to the Mexican Megalopolis (National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City, and architecture/urbanism museums in Berlin, Linz and Copenhagen; 2008-2011), the multi-media installation ‘five dérives – Mexico City’ presented at the exhibition Instant Urbanism (SAM Basel, 2007) and the intervention ‘Jolly Jumper Jumping Sunday’ as part of the art collective spurs’s contribution to the exhibition The Interventionists: Art in the Social Sphere (MassMoCA North Adams, 2004). Together with Alfred Herrhausen Society and the German Centre for Architecture (DAZ) they co-organized two international symposiums on Mexico City in 2008 (DAZ, Berlin) and 2009 (MIDE, Mexico City: Urban Age Mexico City Symposium/LSE). In 2009 they worked as consultant curators for the Mexican Pavilion at the World Expo Shanghai 2010. In 2010, Citámbulos organized a series of public talks on citizenship, peripherisation and urban sustainability as well as on the civil society’s response to the war on drugs (La Miscelánea, Mexico City). In 2011, they were invited to showcase audio-visual works of the exhibition at the 2nd International Visual Methods Conference at the Open University, Milton Keynes, UK, and to speak at the Latin-America Conference organized by the German Foreign Office, Ibero-American Institute and Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin. In 2012, Citámbulos showed Curating the City, an exhibition about exhibition-making, and invited to the the public talk Curating Research in Stuttgart. Together with the Dutch architecture foundation Archis they are organizing a week of urban walks/interventions investigating Mexico City’s invisible borders in December 2012.

Core members are:

Ana Álvarez: (*1977, Mex) MA in Mathematics, National Autonomous University of Mexico, and photographer. She currently works as project manager in Mexico City.

Fionn Petch: (*1977, UK) MA with distinction in Philosophy, University of Warwick, and PhD candidate in Philosophy, National Autonomous University of Mexico. He works as curator and translator in Mexico City.

Valentina Rojas Loa: (*1978, Mex) MA in and Arts Management and Policies with specialisation on Curating, Birkbeck, University of London. She works as arts manager and curator in Mexico City and Berlin.

Christian von Wissel: (*1974, D) MA in Architecture, Technological University Berlin and PhD candidate in Visual Sociology, Goldsmiths, University of London. He works as architect and urban researcher in Mexico City, London and Berlin.

Associated members are:

Vlady Díaz: (*1975, Mex) Independent film maker based in Mexico City. Owner of La Chuleta Films.

Alfa Sofía Hernández (*1976, Mex) Independent film and event producer based in Mexico City and Italy.

Luis Rodríguez: (*1969, Mex) Independent graphic and exhibition designer based in Mexico City. (www.luisrodriguez.mx). He is a founding member of Vínculos, Comunidad y Cultura A.C.