Anabella Acevedo
Executive Director, Ciudad de la Imaginación
Anabella is an independent academic; she resides and works in Quetzaltenango since 2005. She holds an undergraduate degree in Literature and Philosophy from the Rafael Landívar University. She obtained her Master’s in Latin American Literature in 1989 and a doctorate in Latin American Literature from the University of Georgia in 1994. She has curated the XVII and XIX Bienal de Arte Paiz in Guatemala (2012 & 2014). In 2013 she formed part of a research team for the “The curvature of time, Art and Women”. She’s published several essays about literature and Guatemalan Art.
Pablo José Ramírez
Curator and Member of Ciudad de la Imaginación Advisory Board
Pablo José Ramírez is a curator and essayist. He has received studies in political science and art theory. He is currently the Executive Director and Curator at Ciudad de la Imaginación in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. He also co-curates the XIX Bienal de Arte Paiz in Guatemala. He is the founder and and director of the Contemporary Art & Political Theory Simposium, Absurdo. He is interested in projects that question the colonial, power relations and visual arts. He has received several grants including the The Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros 2012 CIMAM Travel grant. His most recent curatorial projects are: Estados de Excepción (States of Exception) in Guatemala and Quito, Ecuador and La caricia vulgar de la caida (The vulgar caress of the fall) in the Spanish Cultural Center of Guatemala.
Nitin Sawhney, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Media Studies, The New School
Nitin Sawhney’s research, teaching and creative practice engages the critical role of technology, civic media, and artistic interventions among communities in crisis contexts and contested spaces. Nitin completed his doctoral degree at the MIT Media Lab and taught at the MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology (ACT). He co-curated the participatory exhibition #SearchUnderOccupy at the New School to showcase creative responses to the Occupy Movement in New York City in 2012. Nitin is currently completing a documentary film, Zona Intervenida, focusing on genocide, memory and body through site-specific performance interventions and documentary film in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala.
Radhika Subramaniam
Director/Chief Curator of the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center
Radhika Subramaniam is the Director/Chief Curator of the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center and an assistant professor of Art and Design History and Theory. Her research interests are in South Asian urban modernity and cultures of catastrophe. Her curatorial practice is cross-disciplinary and dialogic, committed to public pedagogy, critical urbanism, and political and social justice.Subramaniam previously served as director of cultural programs at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC), where she commissioned several public art projects in downtown Manhattan and oversaw a program of art and ideas. She has a PhD in Performance Studies and a master’s degree in anthropology.
Julian De Mayo
Exhibit Producer
Julian de Mayo is a media scholar and artist based in Brooklyn, NY. His work engages with cross-disciplinary and non-linear mediations of collective memory. Currently, his research is focused on the narrative and visual legacies of the ongoing AIDS crisis in Latino communities, which has been featured at the New York Public Library and Queens Museum. He was born in Bogota, Colombia to Colombian-Chilean parents and was raised in Vancouver, Canada. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Geography and Latin American Studies from Simon Fraser University, and is a Master’s Candidate in Media Studies at The New School.
Nelesi Rodriguez
Digital Media Coordinator
Nelesi is a Venezuelan educator, researcher, and creative media producer. Her research interests include transmedia, contemporary identities and aesthetic discourses. Currently, she is conducting her Masters degree in Media Studies at The New School, where she also collaborates with the Engage Media Lab, an initiative that promotes civic engagement through participatory media projects.
Caroline Brendel
Curatorial Research Assistant
Caroline is a German researcher, mostly working in the field of cultural production and curating. Her research interests focus on contemporary Latin American art and performance, curatorial practice and urban design. Currently, she spends a research semester at Parsons The New School for the Design as part of her Masters programme in Communication & Cultural Management at Zeppelin University, Friedrichshafen. She has conducted research and worked in several countries in Latin America, including Argentina, Brazil and Peru.