Marisa Morán Jahn | Bibliobandido

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Marisa Morán Jahn, "Bibliobandido"

Courtesy of the Gallery.

Bibliobandido is a public artwork and literacy movement by artist Marisa Morán Jahn. The project began twelve years ago as a collaboration between Jahn and the community of El Pital, in rural Honduras. According to the legend they created, Bibliobandido is a masked bandit who eats stories and playfully pesters little kids to feed him stories they’ve written.

As Bibliobandido’s fame eventually rivaled that of Santa Claus, the project grew to encompass thousands of young people across 19 participating Honduran communities. Bibliobandido workshops also spread to thousands of youth in North and Central America, taking root in institutions ranging from the Seattle Public Library, San Francisco Public Library, Pérez Art Museum Miami, Studio Museum in Harlem, Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art and Storytelling, and universities, festivals, schools, and museums.

In 2023, Bibliobandido will become a film directed/produced by Marisa Morán Jahn and Benjamin Murray.

An artist, filmmaker, and educator of Ecuadorian and Chinese descent, Marisa Morán Jahn’s works redistribute power, “exemplifying the possibilities of art as social practice” (ArtForum). Codesigned with youth, new immigrants, and working families, Jahn’s artwork, civic media tools, and curricula have engaged millions through strategic partners including The American Museum of Natural History, Boys and Girls Club of America, Seattle Public Library, NYC Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, National Domestic Workers Alliance. Her work has been shown at Tribeca Film Festival, Obama’s White House, the United Nations, PBS, The New York Times, CNN, BBC, Brooklyn Museum, and the Venice Biennale of Architecture. She has taught at Teachers College at Columbia University, MIT (her alma mater), and Parsons/The New School where she is the Director of Integrated Design. She is a 2022 Sundance Fellow and 2022 Artist/Writer in Residence at the Brooklyn Public Library.