The Block is delighted to welcome Eduardo Ramírez Bello as the museum’s 2025–2026 graduate interdisciplinary fellow. Eduardo is a PhD candidate in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Northwestern University. He holds a B.A. in Hispanic Literature from the University of Guadalajara and an M.A. in Peninsular and Spanish American Literature from the University of Colorado Boulder. His research examines the manifestations of Modernism in Latin America during the mid-twentieth century and their intersections with disciplines such as literature, cinema, urbanism, and architecture.

We took a moment to ask Eduardo about his background and his work at The Block this year.

Can you tell us a bit about your background and your field of study?

I am originally from Zapopan, México—a city in the western state of Jalisco, often seen as a suburb of Guadalajara, the state’s capital and the country’s second largest city. From the mid-twentieth century on, Zapopan went from a remote corn-farming village to one of Mexico’s most diverse and fastest-growing urban agglomerations. I believe that this is where my critical interest in concepts like urban development and cosmopolitanism (and their counterparts, underdevelopment and provincialism) stems from. Although my formative training was in literary studies, I always enjoyed learning about photography, film, and architecture. Through self-education and my graduate work at Northwestern, I have broadened my specialization to the interdisciplinary fields of visual culture and urban studies. In my doctoral dissertation, I study mid-twentieth-century urban visual culture through Mexico City, exploring the role of transnational avant-garde and modernist aesthetics in its cultural representations. I am focusing on three sites of representation across media—car windshields, storefront windows, and movie theaters—that, to me, really shape how we picture modern city life from the practical and instrumental to the wildly imaginative.

What projects are you focusing on during your fellowship at The Block?

With Corinne Granof, The Block’s Academic Curator, I will be working on a collections-based thematic exhibit about “the city” as a wide-ranging subject. I am very excited about it, not only because it is closely aligned with my current research, but also because The Block holds amazing and diverse artworks related to Chicago and other urban centers of the world. I feel very privileged to have the opportunity to engage with such a rich archive that is right here on campus and to be able to showcase it for everyone within—and beyond!— Northwestern’s community. 

What aspects of the curatorial process are you most eager to explore during your time here?

Carefully selecting, arranging, and presenting visual materials for their interpretation is already a key methodological procedure of my own research, so I am very thrilled to make the transition from the page to the gallery. I also truly enjoy having the opportunity to work on this collaboratively with Corinne and every other member of the teams that make up The Block. I had previously co-curated an exhibition with other grad students, faculty, and museum staff at the CU Boulder Art Museum, where I did my master’s; it was a very rewarding and formative experience for me. Through my previous professional experiences in research and publishing, I am also very accustomed to collaborative work. Conducting research as a graduate student can often feel like a one-person job—even though it is far from it. The truth is that we get the most inspiration and growth from bouncing our ideas and listening to other people’s perspectives. I feel very fortunate to be able to participate in a project that, more than a monologue, feels like a multi-layered and ongoing conversation. 

What museum exhibitions, curatorial approaches, or scholarly projects (outside The Block) have inspired your thinking recently?

I recently traveled to the West Coast for the first time to see Ai, Rebel: The Art and Activism of Ai Weiwei at the Seattle Art Museum, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei’s largest retrospective in the U.S. to date. It was very important to me because I visited with family and friends—among whom was one of my best friends growing up in my home city, who introduced me to Ai Weiwei and with whom we have been following his career since our mid-teens. So, walking around the exhibit was also a little bit like taking a walk down our shared memories together. We had both previously seen some of his work separately in different locations during the past fifteen years or so, but this was the first time we were able to see them together. It felt like attending a rock concert by a generational-defining band—and Ai Weiwei is no less of a pop-punk icon himself!

I was amazed by the way the SAM team installed and exhibited Ai Weiwei’s pieces, which often seem humble but are materially very complex. It seemed to me that they managed to balance an in-depth, critical, and nuanced curatorial discourse with an introductory and even family-friendly approach that made the exhibit very engaging for everyone. I was also very impressed by the SAM’s permanent collection exhibit; its wall texts are incredibly eloquent while concise and the artworks relate to each other through their spatial arrangement in very clever and dynamic ways. Some of the most rewarding moments of my life have been like this, visiting museums (of all kinds and sizes) with the people I love and I think that is what inspires me the most. 

Is there anything upcoming at The Block Museum or Northwestern that you are particularly excited about?

Besides being able to see the beautiful Helen Frankenthalers that are exhibited right now on the main gallery floor on a regular basis, I am particularly excited about the Block Cinema calendar this fall. Screenings at The Block are also among my favorite memories during my time at Northwestern—specifically, my friend and colleague Kylie Walter’s presentation of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg as part of the Crude Aesthetics: Oil on Film cycle and the time I got to attend a screening of Syndromes and a Century in 35mm followed by a conversation with Apichatpong Weerasethakul himself. I am a big fan of horror films in general and especially of watching horror films in anticipation of Halloween and Día de Muertos, so I am very excited that this fall the Block Cinema will be screening a Mexican horror classic, The Witch’s Mirror, which I found really scary when I was a kid and have not rewatched ever since; and The Fool Killer, directed by Mexican filmmaker Servando González and starring Anthony Perkins. I also happen to be a big Anthony Perkins fan.