JuanCha [Juan Manuel Chávez] is a multidisciplinary artist and architect from Mexico City. His work explores a range of mediums, including film, photography, design, and recently ceramics. He is interested in traces as agents of cultural potential, continually shifting under tensions that retransform, reappropriate, and reinterpret them.
Juan holds a Master of Science in Architecture Studies and Design from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he was a Fulbright-García Robles Scholar. His design research at MIT was focused on encounters with design and the elements that compose them, shaping cultural perceptions of the world around us. Particularly, his thesis work, The Cycles of aMaízing Things, focused on tracing the trans-scalar circulations of ‘maíz’ (aka maize/corn) deeply ingrained in humans and their systems. As a monumental symbol in transition, oscillating from myth to industry, he designed a collection of performative artifacts in relation to maize and its circulations in the history of humanity.
Part of his film work and installations have been presented at the MIT Wiesner Art Gallery, the MIT List Visual Arts Center, and the MIT Museum. He is currently based in Mexico City working on his own design and art practice.
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