Established in Singapore in 2020, the Centre for Urban Mythologies (CUM) is a para-institution and research studio for critical spatial and curatorial practice that examines the narratives and infrastructures undergirding the contested spatialities and socialities of what is commonly referred to as the ‘Global South’.

Drawn to the failures and fissures of contemporary visual cultures and where they intersect with systems of control, value, and classification, CUM excavates the debris and detritus of late capital and empires in order to in(ve)stigate justices and solidarities through open-ended projects and activations that are situated and convivial.

These projects have taken the forms of discursive interventions such as exhibitions, screenings, publications, and presentations that convene thinkers, contexts, and pleasures into temporary architectures of generative rest and resistance.

An epiphytic nomad that seeks to inhabitate, infiltrate, and initiate, CUM is founded and directed by Alfonse Chiu.