ALBERTO ORTEGA-TREJO

Mexican artist and architectural researcher based in Chicago, USA and Pachuca, Mexico.

His work uses architectural history, writing and video to address representations of indigeneity, the production of extreme environments and contemporary political struggles in the Americas. He has been a fellow of the Society of Architectural Historians and a grantee of the New Artists Society of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Jumex Foundation for Contemporary Art and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. His work has been shown in venues as Fundación Andreani for BienalSur, Ca’ Foscari Zattere for the 16th Venice Architecture Biennale, Harun Farocki Institut, Chicago Design Museum, Extase, SITE Galleries, SpaceP11 and Centro de Arte y Filosofia.

He is currently the curator of The Last of Animal Builders, an exhibition at the Edith Farnsworth House, opening April 2, 2023. He manages the Katz Center for Mexican Studies at The University of Chicago.

Work by Alberto Ortega at Rhona Hoffman Gallery in Chicago.


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Freedom, baby, is never having to say you’re sorry (The Caravan)

On Protest and Capitalism

Video Installation - at Sullivan Galleries

On April 15th of 2019, Tax Day in the United States, I conducted an ambiguous protest with three white limousines in the city of Chicago. Through the choreographies of presidential motorcades, parades, and other performances of power, The Caravan calls into question currents methods of protest, public space occupation and its efficacy in a world where everything is fed and produced by capitalism. Its elements and sites visited (Grant Park, Haymarket Square, Ida B. Wells Blvd, Martin Luther King Drive, etc.) address both the history of protest, class, the problem of Whiteness and the natural phenomena of migration. The flags were flashing the following slogans: Automatic Protest Vehicle, Over Protest, Genuine Privileged Discomfort. The event was documented by a press car and a drone.

Video Installation: One curved 60” and two 48” monitors,  

This project was possible thanks to the support of: Andrea Hunt, Arnold Kemp, Dwayne Moser, Joshi Radin and Ilona Gaynor.