Who: Michael Menchaca, Claudia Zapata
What: Online launch of The Wall (link goes live October 22)
Where: El Museo del Barrio Zoom
When: Thursday, October 22, free with advance RSVP, 6:00
Why: On October 22, Texas-born artist Michael Menchaca will launch the online version of his three-channel video project The Wall, as part of El Museo del Barrio’s “Estamos Bien — La Trienal 20/21.” Previously presented live at the American University Museum in DC last year, The Wall, which features music from Jorge Ramos Avalos’s January 2019 video op-ed “Trump Is the Wall,” addresses issues of borders and immigration using gaming and video art as seen through Chicanx aesthetics. The event will include a discussion between Menchaca, Smithsonian American Art Museum curatorial assistant Claudia Zapata, and curators from El Museo del Barrio. “With the virtual presentation of The Wall, my intention is to offer a space for contemplation on one of the central campaign promises of the forty-fifth U.S. president as he seeks reelection,” Menchaca said in a statement. The on-site exhibition “Estamos Bien — La Trienal 20/21” is scheduled to open at El Museo on March 13.