Come and experience November’s exhibit, Festival Mictlán. Presented by Images of Mexico, a project founded by Harvard Divinity and Graduate School of Design students with the goal of generating spaces in which the multiple realities of Mexico are shown and discussed.
The exhibit is divided into two parts. The first presents a selection of prints from Festival Mictlán, centered on Mictlán, the underworld in Aztec mythology. It explores the multiplicity of meanings and practices surrounding this celebration in Mexico through eleven works by designers, illustrators, and typographers.
The second part features a community altar—an abstract interpretation of a traditional Día de los Muertos altar— The community altar is composed of two elements that invite reflection, memory, and life. The framing sculptures are adorned with flowers built collaboratively by Latin GSD students and community members visiting the kiosk. These structures function as active canvases, inviting individuals to craft a Cempoalxotchitl (Marigold) flower and write or draw on paper to honor their loved ones in celebration of the Mexican cultural tradition: Día de Muertos. At the center stands a sculpture made of reclaimed industrial materials and earth-based elements. It embodies memory, cycles of material life, labor, and migration — grounding the altar in histories of movement and transformation.