Publication

  • LIGA Vol. 2: Exposed Architecture: Exhibitions, Interludes and Essays
    Carlos Bedoya, Ruth Estevez, Wonne Ickx, Victor Jaime, and Abel Perles
    Editors
    Park Books, 2017
  • GRANTEE
    LIGA-Space for Architecture
    GRANT YEAR
    2015

Diego Arraigada, view of LIGA 13: Looking In, Looking Out, 2014, Mexico City. Courtesy of Luis Gallardo, LGM Studio.

LIGA Vol. 2 is the second publication from the pioneer venue LIGA-Space for Architecture in Mexico City. This book includes all the content produced for exhibitions 11 through 22 showcased in the space, such as photographs, texts written specifically for each installation, and essays that explore the significance of having a platform such as LIGA that reflects on contemporary architecture in Latin America. Since the beginning, LIGA has operated as a platform to promote the exchange of ideas and research around emerging architectural practices, specifically from Latin America. Every project has enhanced the creation of an international community, one that binds together multiple perspectives of the discipline to broaden frontiers between similar cultures.

Isabel Abascal (Madrid, Spain) studied architecture at the UPM, Madrid and the TU, Berlin. She also studied in Ahmedabad with Balkrishna Doshi, before moving to São Paulo where she was lecturer for six years at the Faculty of Architecture, Escola da Cidade. She was involved in curating the 10th São Paulo Architecture Biennale, as well as writing for Domus, Wallpaper, and Avery Review. In 2015 she founded, together with Alessandro Arienzo, the architecture studio LANZA Atelier, nominated to the Iberoamerica Biennale Prize 2016, the MCHAP 2016, and one of the winners of the Architectural League Prize 2017. Since 2015 she has been the director of LIGA-Space for Architecture, and lives in Mexico.

Mario Ballesteros (Mexico City, Mexico) is a design curator, editor, and critic. He is currently director and chief curator at Archivo Diseño y Arquitectura, a space dedicated to collecting, exhibiting and rethinking design in Mexico. He previously worked as founding editor-in-chief for the Mexican edition of Domus and as editor at Quaderns, the journal of the Catalan Architects Association in Barcelona. He has curated design and architecture exhibitions in Mexico and Barcelona, and written for Domus, Quaderns, PIN-UP, Perspecta, 2G, Icon, Uncube, Tank, Celeste, Harper's Bazaar Art, Architecture Australia, Baumeister, ARQA, Jornal de Arquitectos, Gatopardo, Letras Libres, and Arquine. He is co-founder at Andamio, an independent curatorial and editorial consultancy. Ballesteros obtained his bachelor's degree in international affairs from El Colegio de México and a master's degree in architecture and urban culture from the CCCB and the UPC Barcelona Tech.

Barry Bergdoll (Chester, United States) was the Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at New York's The Museum of Modern Art from 2007 to 2014; he is currently completing work there on the exhibition Unpacking the Archive: Frank Lloyd Wright at 150. He is also professor of modern architecture at Columbia University. In 2015 he was one of four curators for Latin America in Construction: Architecture 1955–1980 at MoMA.

Diego Arraigada (Rosario, Argentina) established his office in Rosario, Argentina in 2005 and is a professor at the National University of Rosario and the Torcuato Di Tella University. He was awarded the Architectural Review Award in 2009 and represented Argentina at the I Latin-American Architecture Biennale. His work was exhibited at the 13th Venice Biennale of Architecture, among other events.

Tina DiCarlo is a Europe-based writer and curator. She is currently a PhD Fellow in Place and Displacement: Exhibiting Architecture, funded by the Norwegian Research Council at the Oslo Center for Critical Architectural Studies, Oslo School of Architecture. From 2000–07 she was a curator at The Museum of Modern Art, New York where she curated and assisted on numerous exhibitions.

Agnaldo Farias (Itajubá, Brazil) is a professor at the FAU-USP, a critic, and curator. He is currently chief curator at the Oscar Niemeyer Museum, Curitiba, and was previously chief curator at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro (1998–2000). He was chief curator of the 29th São Paulo Biennial (2010), of the Brazilian pavilion at the 25th São Paulo Biennial (2000), and joint curator of the 23rd São Paulo Biennial (1996). He was curator of the 11th
Cuenca Biennial, Ecuador (2011), of the Brazilian pavilion at the 54th Venice Architecture Biennale (2011), and of the 1st Johannesburg Biennial (1995).

LIGA–Space for Architecture is an independent initiative founded in Mexico City in 2011 that promotes Latin American contemporary architecture through exhibitions, conferences and workshops. LIGA was created as a curatorial platform in order to stimulate the experimentation in relation to the architectural discipline and its possibilities as a discursive practice, expanding and establishing connections with other disciplines. The annual calendar comprises four exhibitions in which emerging studios from across Latin America intervene the gallery's sixteen-square-meter space located on Insurgentes Avenue. In parallel to the exhibitions, there is a regular program entitled Interludes which presents conferences, workshops, debates, and performances, proposing tangential relationships with architecture.