Irasema Fernández (México, 1990) is a writer and intermedia artist. Her practice lies at the intersection of literature and visual art, exploring the tensions between the written word and the object, and between intimate and public space.

Her background in Spanish Language and Literature at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), followed by her engagement with visual art, has shaped a practice that encompasses installation, sculpture, urban intervention, archival research, and textual media.

Narrativas Móviles (Mobile Narratives) —an ongoing project since 2020— is perhaps the most direct expression of this practice. The series consists of strips of text that form sculptures and installations. Fernández works, for example, with onion skin paper to transcribe fragments of her intimate life, with UV paint on paper to narrate migratory trajectories, and with acid-treated paper to mark the passage of time. Her choice of materials seeks to establish an intimate connection between writing and its material support.

Fernández develops interventions in public space addressing gender-based violence, sexual abuse, police violence, and imposed beauty standards affecting non-hegemonic bodies. In 2021, together with other activists, she received the Rapid Response Fund from Fundación Avina Americas for the intervention Contra la Violencia Machista Institucional (Against Institutional Gender-Based Violence), which sought to demand information, prevention, and reparations for sexual crimes committed by police officers against women, trans, and non-binary people. That same year, she was invited by the Hay Festival Querétaro to give a masterclass on urban art and street protest as forms of political imagination and community-making.

In 2025, she founded the publishing house Olla Express, as a tribute to Beau Geste Press (1971–1976). Its aim is to publish and disseminate works and essays addressing intermediality in contemporary art and writing. The publishing house operates as a mobile space between Mexico City and Berlin, with the intention of connecting artistic practices across continents.

She is the author of Qué belleza (What a Beauty, Miau Ediciones, 2023) and Tu fantasma en mi cabeza (Your Ghost in My Head, UANL, 2026). She has received grants from Mexico’s Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (FONCA) for short fiction (2017) and novel writing (2021). In 2024, she was a fellow at Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, where she presented the solo exhibition What a Beauty and participated as a guest artist in Common Cities, part of the Kultur Region Stuttgart Festival. Her work has been presented in Mexico City, Stuttgart, and Berlin.

This exchange is a cooperation between aqb and Akademie Schloss Solitude as a part of the Solitude Exchange Network of Akademie Schloss Solitude. It is supported by the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts of the State of Baden-Württemberg.