The other day I stopped by to visit my dear friend Alfredo Romero Campos to get a first look at his newest project — and talk about his upcoming exhibition at Hartii Cultural Center. What he shared is a journey through memory, time, and the visual soul of Mexico.
On December 3 at 7 PM, Romero opens “El Lugar Que Habito: 11 Años Recuperando Memorias,” a monumental exhibition that brings together more than a decade of work dedicated to recovering the nation’s collective memory. His pieces are more than artworks — they’re evidence, rescued stories, and sonic echoes of neighborhoods, walls, and communities across Mexico.
This new exhibition at Hartii is not just a look back at 11 years of creation, but a poetic narrative about who we are, the places we inhabit, and what time leaves behind.
The Visual Memory of a Country, Rescued from Its Walls
Romero works with an anthropological technique called STRAPPO, a method used by archaeologists to detach and restore mural paintings. In his hands, this technique becomes a tool of preservation a way to lift pieces of urban memory directly from city walls and transform them into canvases that hold the textures, typography, color, and emotional residue of daily life.
His body of work is a conversation between popular rotulismo, social memory, ephemeral architecture, and the lived history embedded in Mexico’s urban landscape.
This is art that listens closely. Art that documents the language of the street before it disappears.
Exhibition Highlights
Each series in the exhibition represents a different chapter in Romero’s 11-year archive of urban memory.
VESTIGIOS DE NUESTROS TIEMPOS
A chronicle of his search for the visual memory of the street. These works capture fragments of everyday magic advertisements, promises, pop culture relics, handwritten signs all rescued at the edge of disappearance.
A dialogue between rotulismo, ephemeral architecture, memory, and time.
MEMORIAS URBANAS
Walls are more than structures they are archives. This series explores how murals, signs, and public messages become containers of identity. From neighborhood businesses to cultural slogans and playful imagery, these pieces ask us to see the city as a living manuscript.
SONIDEROS URBANOS
Walls that once pulsed with music, laughter, and neighborhood parties. Romero treats these fragments as silent musical scores visual echoes of the gatherings, rhythms, and sonidero culture that animated barrios across Mexico.
DESPIEL
A bold, intimate invitation to peel away layers of life. These works explore textures, densities, and skins an exercise in shedding outer stories and revealing what remains beneath.
DESANDAR EL TIEMPO
A chromatic journey into collective and personal memory. Romero reveals the intimate stories hidden within urban signs, their weathering, and their removal from original locations a delicate, almost ritual process.
STRATTOS
Here, Romero rearranges fragments into playful compositions. The works feel spontaneous yet intentional, embracing chance to rewrite narratives and subvert order. Another kind of archival storytelling.
MEMORIAS TOPOGRÁFICAS
What would a map of a life look like? This series is a poetic cartography of the songs, costumes, names, and moments we leave behind. A meditation on memory’s geography.
ESCULTURAS
Romero’s sculptural works emerge like urban fossils fragments of architecture and life transformed into three-dimensional memory. Almost archaeological, they reinterpret everyday remnants as timeless artifacts.
Why This Exhibition Matters for Mérida’s Art Scene
Mérida has become a magnet for international and national artists, but Romero’s work stands out for its deep grounding in Mexican identity, popular culture, and anthropological preservation. His practice is both conceptual and tactile, rooted in streets, neighborhoods, and lived experience.
This exhibition is a major cultural moment for Mérida and a chance to see a body of work that feels essential to understanding the rhythms, textures, and stories of modern Mexico.
Exhibition details
🎨 Exhibit: El Lugar Que Habito: 11 Años Recuperando Memorias
👤 Artist: Alfredo Romero Campos
📅 Opening: December 3
⏰ Time: 7:00 PM
📍 Venue: Hartii Cultural Center, Mérida, Yucatán
💵 Cost: Free & open to the public
If you love art, history, anthropology, design, or the visual culture of Mexico, this is an exhibition you simply can’t miss.
