Sascia Bailer

The exhibition "Urgencia Territorial/Territorial Urgency  - Critical Urban Practices Towards a Just City: Mercado San Roque, Quito, Ecuador" features five site-specific proposals by a group of students from Parsons' graduate urban programs. Their research focuses on the Mercado San Roque as an entry point into an exploration of urban tensions and relations of power. In collaboration with the Quito-based activist group Red de Saberes (Network of Knowledges), whose multimedia work is also part of the exhibition, they seek to strengthen existing resistance movements in the market and to extend their networks and strategies through solidarity with other international movements. The conditions of the Mercado drive a "territorial urgency," as a site in which social, economic and cultural politics propels a demand for action. The group focuses on this action by exploring intersecting issues of indigenous rights, uneven development, aggressive tourism campaigns, cultural heritage, alternative pedagogies and food sovereignty. Together the works constitute an alternative vision of a more locally empowered and just city.   See more on issuu .