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The Administrative Board of the ARS TEOR/éTica Foundation is pleased to announce the appointment of Paula Piedra Mora as Director of this organization.
With this decision, we acknowledge Paula’s long-standing contributions and career trajectory. She has been an essential part of the team since 2013, first serving as General Producer, and later joining the Collective Direction of TEOR/éTica from 2018 until early this year. Throughout this time, her enthusiasm and dedication to the work we do, along with her exceptional management skills and deep commitment to the organization’s processes, have been consistently evident.
Paula has shown that she possesses the skills and talents needed to successfully take on the challenge of leading this project. She is actively involved with practitioners in the realms of artistic, literary, and intellectual creation, both nationally and regionally. This involvement stems not only from her own work as a writer but also from her collaborations—whether independently or through TEOR/éTica—with a wide range of individuals and cultural agents. Her commitment, dedication, and experience highlight a unique ability to weave together the two core pillars that define TEOR/éTica: art and thought.
On the other hand, we also highlight that both in the management and production of artistic and/or curatorial projects, as well as in her active participation in the different study groups that she is so passionate about, Paula manages to contribute to these processes from a rare mixture of critical sense, humor and pragmatism. She is also a person with a proven talent for building links and establishing relationships with agents and institutions of art, culture, writing and thought.
Paula reflects on her continued involvement with the organization in the following words:
“Being part of the TEOR/éTica team continues to inspire me, as it offers a space for learning, experimentation, and meaningful connections with a wide range of people. I’m also driven by the challenge of managing artistic and cultural projects that engage critically and constructively with the needs, struggles, and concerns emerging from our context.”
We trust that Paula Piedra’s vision and solid management experience—along with her critical reflections on organizational practices, genuine curiosity about the artistic and intellectual work of the region, ability to build meaningful connections, and deep knowledge of the institution—will enrich and strengthen TEOR/éTica’s present and future projects in a sensitive and sustainable way.
All of us on the team warmly wish her every success in this new chapter as the head of the institution. We are confident that her thoughtful leadership will continue to nurture and strengthen the mission and spirit of TEOR/éTica.
Paula Piedra (San José, Costa Rica, 1976)
Writer, editor, and cultural manager, Paula trained as an Interior Designer and holds a Master’s degree in Project Management. She also completed a Diploma in Narrative Practices with the Collective of Narrative Practices (Mexico).
She has a strong interest in exploring how to manage TEOR/éTica’s projects in ways that respond critically and constructively to the concerns and struggles that shape both the organization and its broader context. Since 2015, she has actively participated in the assembly, study groups, and working groups of the Arts Collaboratory network. From 2017 to 2019, she co-organized the study group “UPE!” with Seeds: architecture in community, which reflected on TEOR/éTica’s role within the Amón neighborhood in San José, Costa Rica.
Since 2019, together with Sofía Gallisá Muriente (Puerto Rico) and Nicolás Pradilla (Mexico), she has been engaged in examining the working conditions of art organizations across Latin America. This collaboration led to the publication of Introducción al Manual del Empleade in 2024, in partnership with Beta-Local (Puerto Rico) and t-e-e (Mexico).
Through TEOR/éTica, she has contributed to several publications, including Gestionar la duda: Ensayos sobre una ficción operativa and (re)HABITAR. She has also participated in studio projects such as Folleto, No saber, and Taller de autopublicación La Diabla, as well as in various curatorial experiments.
Since 2022, she has served as an interim professor at the School of Architecture at the University of Costa Rica (UCR), where she teaches the first-year course Architecture and Writing.
As a writer, she has published poetry and short story collections, and has contributed articles and columns to various national and international media outlets. Since 2024, she has co-managed and co-edited the publishing project Cúmulo Involuntario de Minúsculas Calamidades alongside Diego van der Laat.
Over its 26-year trajectory, TEOR/éTica has become a key platform for the research, reflection, and dissemination of contemporary artistic practices in Central America and the Caribbean. In addition to promoting exhibitions, publications, grants, public programs, among other initiatives, our organization integrates processes of internal study and self-evaluation into its practice, allowing for a continuous questioning and refining of its ways of doing.
Through these processes, TEOR/éTica seeks not only to support regional artistic production, but also to contribute to the construction of cultural institutions that are more conscious, sensitive, and sustainable. In this sense, the Foundation promotes a cultural practice that is both collective and situated, aiming to build diverse audiences engaged with critical thinking.
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