Vanesa Peña Alarcón

Vanesa Peña Alarcón is a Spain-based curator and researcher specializing in visual culture and performance. She works in an in[ter]dependent manner with institutions, artists, and other cultural agents. Her practice revolves around the conceptual and critical manifestations of contemporary art, exploring its interdisciplinary intersections and theoretical approaches. With a particular interest in expanding exhibition and performative formats, as well as renegotiating community and heritage practices, her work delves into the relationships and boundaries of individual and collective memory, emphasizing the processes of [de]construction of narratives. In close collaboration with artists, she develops long-term processes based on writing and knowledge transfer, adopting experimental languages aimed at expanding the horizons of curatorial and artistic practices.

Graduated in Art History (Complutense University of Madrid) with a MA in Research in Cultural Theory and Criticism (Carlos III University), she furthered her training in cultural management through scholarships such as MAEC-AECID from the Government of Spain, first in Shanghai and then in Washington D.C.  Her projects have taken the form of research, residencies, publications, exhibitions, conferences and performances in China  (Instituto Cervantes), United States (Embassy of Spain), Germany (SomoS Arthouse, Kastanien Projektraum, Andenbuch), Mexico (El/Patio Art Baja California, ZonaMACO) and Spain (Casa Planas Archive, h20 Gallery, Concéntrico International Festival of Architecture and Design, Consortium of Museums of the Valencia Region, National Museum of Decorative Arts, Barcelona City Council, Beta Contemporary, A cobert, Ex Abrupto Arts Festival), among others. She is also co-founder of experimental live arts-based platforms addressing contemporary conditions of malaise and a member of research groups advocating for the recovery and defense of memory politics.