Activation of the piece Oficina de Ecologías Artificiales

The Office of Artificial Ecologies is a space for gathering and exchange. As an activation of Federico Pérez Villoro’s piece included in the exhibition atrás del ártico se esconde un paraíso, a series of public dialogues will explore the mechanisms through which technical operativity is imposed upon living ecosystems.

The program examines three cases in which ecological principles have been co-opted as technoscientific fictions to justify extractive industries and development projects, while also recovering examples in which fiction operates as a tool to mobilize collective political imagination.

The Office of Artificial Ecologies will serve as a meeting place for individuals and groups resisting structural, material, and environmental violence in territories near Guadalajara.

Panel 1 – Santiago River: Trauma and Technical Imposition on Wet Ecosystems

Panel 2 – Lake Chapala: Agroindustry, Pesticides, and Wounded Soils

Panel 3 – Primavera Forest: Fires, Illegal Logging, and Real Estate Speculation

Mónica Nepote is a writer, artist, listener, observer, and mountaineer. Her work weaves poetry with visual, electronic, and performative formats. She is the author of books such as Hechos diversos, Islario, and La voz es mi pastor. From 2013 to 2021, she coordinated the E-Literature project at the Centro de Cultura Digital, focusing on the intersection of technology, affect, and cultural practices.

In 2023, she co-edited Semillas de nuestra tierra: muestra ecopoética mexicana with Yaxkin Melchy, and Material de lectura on Rachel Carson for UNAM. Her essays have been included in books such as Viajes al país del silencio and Tsunami 3. In 2024, she published Una máquina puede ser una casa (Pitzilein Books) and Las trabajadoras (Heredad), the latter recognized with the Xavier Villaurrutia Prize. Her forthcoming book Vestigios de un mundo por venir will be published by Festina.

Federico Pérez Villoro is an artist and educator based in Mexico City. His practice investigates the industrialization of water as an example of the imposition of technical operativity over living ecosystems, through texts, installations, video, and performance.

He is currently a research fellow at TBA21–Academy, collaborating with Tactical Tech on a study of freshwater access in the Caribbean. He has received the Jumex Foundation for Contemporary Art Sponsorship Grant (2023), and the C/Change grant from the Goethe-Institut and Grey Area in San Francisco.

He has completed residencies at Pivô Pesquisa (São Paulo, Brazil) and OCAT (Shenzhen, China), and has taught at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and California College of the Arts (CCA). He has given lectures and workshops at institutions such as UC Berkeley, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), New York University (NYU), MassArt, ETH Zurich, Rutgers University, CalArts, The New School, UNAM, Escuela de Artes Jalisco, and Hongik University. In 2019, he founded Materia Abierta, a summer school for critical thinking based in Mexico City.

Free event — Registration required

Open to youth and adults

— MAZ