short vita

Alejandra Cárdenas is a Peruvian-born artist. Cárdenas began her career in Lima's underground music scene in the 2000s. Her work encompasses various formats such as live shows, albums, multimedia artworks and research. Her live performances, under the moniker Ale Hop, merge the physical qualities of sound with raw affective states. She builds layers of sound by maneuvering an intricate repertoire of electric guitar techniques to create music of deep intensity. In the past year, she has initiated various collaborative practices, including Agua Dulce with percussionist Laura Robles, radically mutating Afro-Peruvian rhythms, and Near and Remote Activation Practices, with sound artist Tatiana Heuman, which draws inspiration from South American organology and storytelling.

She also co-founded the Radical Sounds Latin America festival (of which she was co-curator from 2019 to 2021) and initiated the publication Border-Listening/Escuchas-Liminales and the editorial platform Contingent Sounds, whose aim is to facilitate artists' practices and perspectives in the field of sound. Cárdenas is also a PhD candidate at the Berlin University of Arts. Her work has been presented internationally at institutions and festivals, including MUTEK, Unsound, CTM, Sonic Acts, Taiwan C-LAB, REWIRE, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, New York's Museum of Arts and Design, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Somerset House Studios, Heroines of Sound, among others.