Federico Pérez Villoro (b. 1987, Guadalajara) lives and works in Mexico City. He is an artist and researcher that through installations, essays, software and videos, explores the ways in which power is exercised through computational technologies. His recent projects address the history of the domestication of rivers and other bodies of water and the imposition of technical operativity upon living ecosystems.
His work has been exhibited internationally at institutions such as Transmediale, Taipei Fine Art Museum, Museo de Arte de Zapopan, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey, Espacio Odeón, Casa del Lago UNAM, Centre A Vancouver, Museo de Filatelia de Oaxaca, and Palm Springs Art Museum. He is the founder of Materia Abierta, a program on political ecologies in Mexico City developed with Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC), Museo Tamayo, Casa del Lago UNAM, KADIST, among other organizations. In 2023 he received the Jumex Grant Program Award from the Jumex Arte Contemporáneo Foundation and the C/Change Fellowship from the Goethe-Institut and Gray Area in the United States. He has been a resident at Pivô Pesquisa and Capacete in Brazil and at OCAT in Shenzhen, China. His writings have been published by NACLA Report on the Americas, Luna Córnea, ADOCS, DELUS, The Serving Library, Printed Matter, C Magazine, Gato Negro Ediciones, diSONARE, Walker Art Center as well as featured in journalistic outlets such as Quinto Elemento Lab, The New York Times, Aristegui Noticias among others. Federico has taught at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and California College of the Arts (CCA). He has lectured, runned workshops and acted as a guest critic at schools such as UC Berkeley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, New York University (NYU), ETH Zurich, Rutgers University, CalArts, The New School, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Escuela de Artes Jalisco, and Hongik University. In 2013, Federico received an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. He is currently a research resident at TBA21-Academy where he investigates access to fresh water in the Caribbean and is organizing an exhibition with the Ford Foundation Gallery in New York on the use of water as a border technology.