Guest Artists

Amalia Mesa-Bains

Tania Candiani

nauj leunam (Juan Silverio)

Online Exhibition and festival

A Long journey: 2020 Dia de los muertos

Oct. 18 - Nov. 1, 2020

Gabriela Urtiaga, Chief Curator

Día de los muertos invites us to come together to commemorate this multi-millennial tradition that celebrates the passage of life through this land and connects us with the significance and memories of our ancestors.  

 “A long journey” refers to the path that each person takes during their life cycle, and how throughout history this intimate circle honors that memory through rituals and celebrations. 

 The importance of life, of bonds, ritual, identity and the journey as an essential part of one’s being, are poetically connected in this group of works selected from the MOLAA Permanent Collection for the 2020 Día de los muertos exhibition. 

 The need to reflect on the vanitas of being, the idea of time and space in that sigh of life, the dreams and fears of an end and the dreams of a beginning, are enhanced in the dialogue of these works that speak of the past, of the present, and future; merging with the beliefs and customs of our Latinx cultures. 

 Everyday objects and items such as altars, skulls, vessels, knives and candles; hearts, imaginary beings and beings of the natural world are sublimated in an epiphany of the flight of birds and the lightness of the floating leaves in the sky, reflecting the ephemeral and at the same time eternal memory and the hope of a long journey beyond the stars and the earth.