IN CONVERSATION WITH SU WU
Documented by Pia Riverola, November 2024, Masa Galeria, Mexico City
This time we built a bridge between Mexico City and Istanbul and met with Su Wu. A true creative force in CDMX, Su is a writer and curator, renowned for her expert eye. Pia Riverola captured Su effortlessly in her element at Masa Galeria, where she is Curator-at-Large, fostering conversations that span art, design, material culture and craft.
Just as we aim to create experiences that go beyond the visible to awaken curiosity and creativity, Su Wu inspires us with her unique ability to bring diverse worlds together.
In Siedrés Resort’25, we got together to discuss the influences of the art and design scene in CDMX, where she finds inspiration, and how she curates her wardrobe, among other topics. She shared, “I believe in getting dressed as an ethic – that one should commit to existing in a way that exceeds simple usefulness,” a sentiment we couldn’t agree more.
Just as we aim to create experiences that go beyond the visible to awaken curiosity and creativity, Su Wu inspires us with her unique ability to bring diverse worlds together.
In Siedrés Resort’25, we got together to discuss the influences of the art and design scene in CDMX, where she finds inspiration, and how she curates her wardrobe, among other topics. She shared, “I believe in getting dressed as an ethic – that one should commit to existing in a way that exceeds simple usefulness,” a sentiment we couldn’t agree more.
What inspires you to write or create in the city?
As a writer, there is a real looseness of words in Mexico, a break in the correspondence between the meaning of words and the action of speaking them. It throws me, even still, but has also forced me to rearrange my beliefs and consider that there is a malleability to words, which are not meant to be certain, only spoken, and that the truth can change immediately or in a week or much later.
What is your earliest memory of Mexico City?
It was so many years ago; I did not yet know anyone here. I was walking down the street in the morning, and my best friend called from far away to say, I’m pregnant, and I yelled, holy shit! into the phone, and a stranger rushed over to ask me if I was okay. And it was such a pure joy, a whole joy rushing into kindness, and I said, I’m okay, I’m okay — and for the first time in as long as I could remember, I was.
How does the art and design scene in Mexico City influence your lifestyle and work?
I’ve been really lucky to have developed a speciality curating exhibitions between art and design and craft. And I think this opened up precisely because I was living in Mexico City, part of a history and contemporary scene full of people that live the underlying premise of my work, which is a belief that creativity is a disposition and inquiry, rather than a single rigid discipline. I’m working right now on an exhibition of contemporary tapestry at Dallas Contemporary, opening April 2025; and on a book, to be published by Phaidon, about the Mesoamerican presence in interiors, architecture and design.
In what ways does the city affect your approach to curating your wardrobe?
I’ve always dressed pretty louche, as long as I can remember. I don’t tend to starchiness, and I fall in love only with people who have messy hair, but I believe in getting dressed as, like, an ethic — that one should commit to existing in a way that exceeds simple usefulness.
If you had to describe Mexico City to someone who has never been, how would you do it?
This is an apocryphal quote often attributed to Salvador Dali, who came once to Mexico and thought it too surreal, “more surrealist than even my paintings.” Or Andre Breton, who called Mexico the “surrealist place par excellence,” and who I think meant this as a compliment, as I would, too.
