Exhibition

Thus We Advance, Harvesting Our Caravans

May 15-June 14, 2025

Exhibition by artist and architect Leticia Pardo and urban researcher and photographer Inés Vachez Palomar. The exhibition will take place at the MAS Context Reading Room (1564 North Damen Avenue, Suite 204, Chicago, Illinois 60622).

Contributors

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Thus We Advance, Harvesting Our Caravans, MAS Context Reading Room, Chicago, 2025. © Dan Kelleghan Photography. Courtesy of MAS Context.

This exhibition presents critical documentation—realized by artist and architect Leticia Pardo and urban researcher and photographer Inés Vachez Palomar—of the architectures produced by Mexican communities in Chicago, US, and the ones produced and financed by remittances sent by migrant populations to their families in Vista Hermosa, Jalisco, Mexico.

A long history of cultural, social, and economic exchange and interdependence has tied the territories and populations of Mexico and the United States. Mutually determined by migration, the spaces produced by populations inhabiting on both sides of the Mexico-US border are a testimony of the deep bonds that exist beyond the criminalization of survival and mobility. By presenting these two apparent distant territories, the exhibition aims to foster a closer reading of the spatial legacy enabled by the architectural imagination of populations often framed as marginal to recognize the value of the architecture they produce. The work of Leticia Pardo and Inés Vachez Palomar invites us to reconsider and bear witness to the transformative potential of the creative outputs of this exchange.

The exhibition has been curated by Karina Caballero and Alberto Ortega Trejo.

GALLERY VISITS

Gallery visits are available May 15–June 14 by appointment. To book a visit, please use our calendar form to see available dates and times.

The MAS Context Reading Room is located on the second floor, which is only accessible by stairs.

If you have any questions, please contact us at info@mascontext.com.

RELATED EVENTS

Thursday, May 15, 2025, 6PM
Reception with artists

Tuesday, May 20, 2025, 6PM
Aesthetic Codes of Interconnected Populations

Panel discussion with Leticia Pardo and Inés Vachez Palomar, moderated by Karina Caballero and Alberto Ortega Trejo

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Thus We Advance, Harvesting Our Caravans, MAS Context Reading Room, Chicago, 2025. © Dan Kelleghan Photography. Courtesy of MAS Context.

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Thus We Advance, Harvesting Our Caravans, MAS Context Reading Room, Chicago, 2025. © Dan Kelleghan Photography. Courtesy of MAS Context.

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Thus We Advance, Harvesting Our Caravans, MAS Context Reading Room, Chicago, 2025. © Dan Kelleghan Photography. Courtesy of MAS Context.

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Thus We Advance, Harvesting Our Caravans, MAS Context Reading Room, Chicago, 2025. © Dan Kelleghan Photography. Courtesy of MAS Context.

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Thus We Advance, Harvesting Our Caravans, MAS Context Reading Room, Chicago, 2025. © Dan Kelleghan Photography. Courtesy of MAS Context.

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Thus We Advance, Harvesting Our Caravans, MAS Context Reading Room, Chicago, 2025. © Dan Kelleghan Photography. Courtesy of MAS Context.

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Thus We Advance, Harvesting Our Caravans, MAS Context Reading Room, Chicago, 2025. © Dan Kelleghan Photography. Courtesy of MAS Context.

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Thus We Advance, Harvesting Our Caravans, MAS Context Reading Room, Chicago, 2025. © Dan Kelleghan Photography. Courtesy of MAS Context.

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Thus We Advance, Harvesting Our Caravans, MAS Context Reading Room, Chicago, 2025. © Dan Kelleghan Photography. Courtesy of MAS Context.

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Thus We Advance, Harvesting Our Caravans, MAS Context Reading Room, Chicago, 2025. © Dan Kelleghan Photography. Courtesy of MAS Context.

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Thus We Advance, Harvesting Our Caravans, 2025. Courtesy of the authors.

Arquitectura de Remesas (Analog Typologies, 2024).

FURTHER READING

Leticia Pardo, Inés Vachez Palomar, and Alberto Ortega, moderated by Karina Caballero, “Sobre Abrir Nuestros Procesos Curatoriales.” Otros Entregables, March 17, 2025. Podcast, 1:32:00.

EXHIBITION CREDITS

Artists: Leticia Pardo and Inés Vachez Palomar
Curators: Karina Caballero and Alberto Ortega Trejo

Exhibition organized by MAS Context.

Supported by the Katz Center for Mexican Studies at The University of Chicago, Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design at Indiana University, and d5 Design & Metal Fabrication.

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