Débora Delmar will develop a new body of work Terms and Conditions investigating money’s relationship to value, objects and time in the context of the current financial crisis. Supported by the research community at Kingston University, Delmar will examine the political and economical factors that determine inflation, its effects in society and relation to materiality.

Delmar will also herby explore further strategies of her working within systems, contracts, relationships and institutions. By incorporating the contractual structure of the Stanley Picker Fellowship, Delmar aims to explore artistic labour as a form of currency, hence questioning the power relations established between artists and institutions. Additionally, Delmar seeks to scrutinise our personal relationship with money and its influence within wider society; through conversations with staff, students and members of the public at Kingston University. Her fellowship project will culminate with an installation and architectural intervention at the Stanley Picker Gallery followed by public events and presentations.

Débora Delmar’s work investigates the effects of globalisation on everyday life focusing on issues of class, gender, cultural hegemony and gentrification. This is borne from the omnipresent influence of the United States in Mexico (Delmar’s place of birth), and in the wider world. Within her practice she examines the contextual value of goods, analysing their systems of production, distribution and consumption. In her installations Delmar frequently references the sanitised aesthetic utilised in non-spaces, a neologism coined by sociologist Marc Augé to describe places such as banks, airports as well as corporate and government buildings, which are commonly under surveillance. She’s particularly interested in the psychological and behavioural influence of this kind of architecture. Physical barriers working as metaphors for political and societal restrictions have been a recurrent subject matter in recent projects. Delmar often works appropriated images and objects, as well as with local production processes and direct architectural interventions. She frequently incorporates immaterial components within her exhibitions such as video, text, sound, scent, and situations.

Selected exhibitions include Body Blend Trade Culture, Museo Universitario del Chopo, MX, 2014, Upward Mobility, Modern Art Oxford, UK, 2015; 9th Berlin Biennial, DE, 2016; Biennial of the Americas, US, 2016; and more recently Femsa Biennial, Michoacán, MX, 2020-2021. She has received numerous grants such as the Jumex Museum Scholarship, MX, 2016-2018; Red Mansion Art Prize, UK/CN ,2018; and the Wolfson College Cambridge RA Graduate Prize, UK, 2019. Upcoming solo exhibitions include LIBERTY., Gallleria Pìu, Bologna, IT, 2022 and TBC, Llano, Mexico City, MX, 2023.