Quick Facts:

Maricruz Peñaloza's work focuses on theoretical aspects such as identity, communication, body presence and text, as well as on public space as a political platform for what happens in a community. Her main interest lies on migration issues, especially those of women coming from Central America to Mexico across the border in Southern Mexico. Also taking different types of violence into account. She works and moves in a dichotomy of private and public.

Maricruz was born and raised in southern Mexico and lives and works in Zurich. She studied fine arts and photography at F+F Art and Design Zurich and political science at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-I (UAM-I) in Mexico City. 

She works as an artist and curator mainly for performance festivals and international performance events. She is the founder and artistic director of the PERFORMANCE REIHE NEU-OERLIKON, in Zurich, and the Performance Open-Air St. Gallen, in St. Gallen. Since 2019 Maricruz is also a board member of Performance Art Network Switzerland - PANCH and a mentor and coordinator for the student performance festival ACT. She also writes and makes a radio show with the women's collective Ni Chicha Ni Limoná.