Maricruz Peñaloza

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Maricruz Peñaloza

Preferred pronouns:

she/her
Birth year:

1961
Primarily based in or works from:

Mexico Switzerland
Skills:

curating event planning and management visual and performance art critical thinking and writing educating fundraising
Topics:

migration participatory women's rights collective political research
Contact information:

Currently working on:

doing research on a new project about artists working in the public space in different countries: How are these spaces occupied? What are the artists' intentions? Are they occupied to make the political and social issues of the country visible?

Quick Facts:

Maricruz Peñaloza's work focuses on theoretical aspects such as identity, communication, body presence and text, as well as on public space as a political platform for what happens in a community. Her main interests lie in migration issues, especially those of women coming from Central America to Mexico across the border in Southern Mexico. Also taking different types of violence into account. She works and moves in a dichotomy of private and public spaces.

Maricruz was born and raised in southern Mexico and lives and works in Zurich. She studied fine arts and photography at F+F Art and Design Zurich and political science at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-I (UAM-I) in Mexico City.

She works as an artist and curator, mainly for performance festivals and international performance events. She is the founder and artistic director of the PERFORMANCE REIHE NEU-OERLIKON, in Zurich, a festival from 2010-2024, and the Performance Open-Air St. Gallen, in St. Gallen, which will have its 5th edition in August 2025. Since 2019, Maricruz is also a board member of the Performance Art Network Switzerland - PANCH and a mentor and coordinator of the student performance festival ACT for the F+F School of Arts and Design Zurich. From 2021-2024 she was part of the radio show with the women's collective Ni Chicha Ni Limoná. Before that she worked at Radio Lora 2019-2021.

Three relevant works from the last 5 years of artistic practice:

Highest educational degree:

Liz.Pol. degree in political science

Work samples:

Mundos Disonantes

Mundos Disonantes (Dissonant Worlds) is a public performance that addresses the concept of migration in the contemporary global context, which has an impact on politics, social structures, and the economy of almost the entire world. Today, capitalist countries fear these mass migrations, despite having previously encouraged them to obtain cheap labour. Today, these migrations are almost unstoppable, given the conditions in their countries of origin: violence, poverty and so on. Where do I come from? Where am I going? Where do I belong? Dissonant times, dissonant worlds.

Idea-Concept: Maricruz Peñaloza
Camera: Veronica Pérez.
©mexico city 2025

Dear Anna

During the performance, I read out a letter that I had written to Anna Tumarkin. She was a young Belarusian Jew who came to Bern to study philosophy at the age of 17, in 1892. I wove in some stories from my own life, drawing parallels and highlighting differences with Anna’s story. Like when I move from the south to Mexico City to study political science and then I moved to Switzerland. The performance is dedicated to all women around the world who had to migrate from their home countries.