Team

Lanfranco Aceti is an internationally recognized artist, curator, and academic whose work operates at the intersection of art, social justice, and environmental advocacy. As Director of Exhibitions and Public Spaces at Heliopolis 21, he brings over two decades of experience developing interdisciplinary projects that challenge dominant narratives through site-specific interventions, public installations, and critical theory. He has curated and exhibited at major international institutions, including the Venice Biennale, the Istanbul Biennale, and the Cooper Gallery for African and African American Art at Harvard University, where he also staged a performance on the sidewalk of the White House. His practice focuses on transforming public and institutional spaces into platforms for engagement, resilience, and alternative futures. Formerly an affiliate at MIT, fellow at Harvard, and Professor at Boston University, Aceti is the founder of the Museum of Contemporary Cuts and Director of OCR (Observations, Creations, and Reflections), publishing and producing work that explores post-democracy, ecological collapse, and urban transformation. His work has been featured in museums, biennials, and academic institutions across Europe, North America, and the Middle East, fostering new conversations between art, activism, and civic space.

Barbora Melis Foerster graduated in Urban Planning in 2010 at the Technische Universitaet in Berlin, after a period of study at the Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia. Barbora has over ten years of experience as an urban planner at an international level, both on behalf of public bodies, such as the Veneto Region, and in professional practice, in Italy, Germany, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the USA. Barbora carries on academic activities, at the University of Portsmouth (UK), on the themes of inclusion and diversity as tools of urban resilience, from the female perspective in city planning. Barbora is currently doing her PhD research in collaboration with the New York Institute of Technology and Pratt Institute (USA). She was a member of the Curatorial Team of the Italian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2021. Barbora Melis Foerster is actually coordinating the activities of New York H21 based office.

Project coordinator in Mexico, J. Antonio Lara-Hernandez awarded his Ph.D. in Architecture in the University of Portsmouth, UK, and his Master studies in the Domus Academy in Milan. He is an urban consultant collaborating in the department of urban resilience research at the Institute of Mobility and Urban Territorial Development in Yucatan, Mexico. His research and professional experience include works in Mexico, Italy, Switzerland, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. He focuses on research topics related to informality in the urban landscape, as well as studies on urban sustainability and resilience. Antonio is a member of the curatorial team of the Italian Pavilion of the Architecture Biennale 2020 led by Prof Alessandro Melis. Dr. Lara-Hernandez is also collaborating at the Research Centre for Sustainable Cities in Campeche (Mexico) and the Cluster of Sustainable Cities in the University of Portsmouth (UK). Antonio has published several academic articles on the impact of the transformation of the built environment at the streetscape level towards the diversity of temporary appropriation in world heritage city centres.