Cartografía de riesgo is a multistage collaborative work that collages photography, first person stories and historic facts with a 1905 map of Mexico City's Centro Historico in an exploration of risk in the contemporary city. The 1905 map was created by the Sanborn Map Company, a U.S. company specializing in maps evaluating the risk of fire.
This initial phase of the project was developed during a residency at Casa Lü and used the Centro Historico locations of Sanborns restaurants - an iconic chain founded by Americans in 1903 and now owned by Mexican business magnate Carlos Slim - as interpretive anchors. Work at Casa Lü culminated in a three-part exhibition consisting of an audio guide (available here in English and here in Spanish), a photo map of Centro, and a new map laid upon the outline of the 1905 map. This was created collaboratively through a workshop with Mexico City residents and through participation at the exhibition. Participants in the workshop walked through the center with the 1905 map as a guide, thinking about the risks they encountered in an expansive and emotional way. They then marked their risks on the new map using a color-coded system. Visitors to Casa Lü were invited to engage in a similiar thought process as they viewed the exhibition and then placed their own risks upon the map.
Work on the project continued in the summer of 2025 at El Room.
