MARÍA WILLS
Public Program Curator
María Wills Londoño (Bogotá, Colombia) is a curator and art historian. Her curatorial practice focuses on the instability of the contemporary image and the reassessment of official historical narratives within the field of art. Recent exhibitions she has organized and co-curated include Amazofuturismos, Mapa Teatro, and Sembrar la duda, which explore innovative exhibition-making approaches by incorporating live arts, installation, theatre, contemporary Indigenous cultures, and vernacular thought, thereby rethinking traditional white-cube exhibition models. In collaboration with various colleagues, she has developed major international curatorial projects, including the MOMENTA Biennale, the Bogotá International Biennial of Art and the City, and ARCO Colombia 2015. She has also served as a director and curator of the museums within Banco de la República’s Arts Unit.
PUBLIC PROGRAM
Focus on Mexico
In parallel with the fair, MIRA 2026 will present a public art program in Paris, developed in the context of the Bicentennial of diplomatic relations between France and Mexico.
The program centers on temporary large-scale sculptural installations in selected public spaces across the city. Participating galleries may propose artists whose practices extend into architectural, sculptural, or public-space contexts.
CALENDAR
Latin America made the body its primary medium: long before becoming an object, art was a gesture, a dance, a rhythm passed down from generation to generation.
Stemming from this origin, MIRA Art Fair 2026 proposes considering pleasure and togetherness as the true driving forces of the artwork today: no longer an object contemplated from a distance, but a shared experience between bodies that mutually recognize each other in their presence. The public programme thus invites us to move beyond the figure of the passive spectator: the viewer becomes involved, activates the work, and, within this space of encounter—between the creator and the perceiver—the possibility of affecting and being affected, of coming together, comes into play.
SECTIONS
I. THE BODY IS THE MESSAGE
PERFORMANCE PROGRAM
Every day, major artists from the Latin American scene will occupy the space through performances that explore different ways of existing in a body that breathes, dances, cross-dresses, and asserts itself in its diversity. Featuring: Cecilia Bengolea, Sandra Monterroso, and Kay Zevallos Villegas.
II. LA SALA DE LA CASA
CONVERSATION SPACE
To imagine spaces that step away from the traditional conference format, MIRA proposes LA SALA: an open space for dialogue designed to engage audiences and recreate the conviviality, trust, and art of conversation—including its more informal dimensions and exchange of confidences—characteristic of Latin American homes when receiving guests ("hacer visita y echar cuento"). These encounters will bring together essential figures from the Latin American scene—artists, collectors, and curators—around reflections on topics such as folklore and ritual in contemporary art, women and power within the art ecosystem, and the construction of identities through the diasporic experience.
III. SUNDAY WITH THE FAMILY
CONTINUOUS ACTIVATION AND WORKSHOP
A carte blanche given to artist Carlota Sandoval Lizarralde, who will use textile objects to invite families to improvise a work of collective creation: sewing, drawing, or repurposing an everyday object to tell the story of what is remembered, as well as what is passed down and inherited across generations. Sunday is thus presented as a threshold to explore domestic and family dimensions, and to reflect on how children inherit their environment while everyday establishing their own mark on the home that surrounds them.
Thursday 12 Nov.
6:30 PMVIP PERFORMANCE & PARTY
Cecilia Bengolea — Realness
Friday 13 Nov.
3:00–4:00 PM
Charlando en la sala: Poetry, Art, and the Caribbean Diaspora
Giselle Lucía, Roger Herrera (Fondation Bernard Grau), Adrien Goetz
4:15–5:15 PM
Charlando en la sala: Collecting Otherwise — Feminism, Art, and the Market
Beatriz López, Sofía Mariscal, Marisol Rodríguez, Agustina L Castro Rioseco
Moderated by Lorena Pérez Jácome
5:30–6:30 PM
Charlando en la sala: The Body Is the Message
Pia Camil · Wynnie Mynerva
Moderated by María Wills
6:45 PM
PERFORMANCE
Sandra Monterroso — Sib’j: Gestos decoloniales sobre carbón
Saturday 14 Nov.
4:15–5:15 PM
Charlando en la sala:
Latin Photography and Theatricality
Karen Biswell, Felipe Romero Beltrán
In conversation with Dr. Ainhoa Suárez Gómez
5:30–6:30 PM
Charlando en la sala:
Folklore and Syncretism — Imagining Other Presents
Kenia Almaraz Murillo, Camila Rodríguez Triana
Moderated by María Wills
6:45 PM
PERFORMANCE
Kay Zevallos Villegas — ¡Abuela, viva la coca libre!
Sunday 15 Nov.
3:00–6:00 PM
La sala: Family Activation & Weaving Workshop
«¡Domingo, digestivo!»
Carlota Sandoval Lizarralde
A collective workshop for families.