Faculty of Art

Drawing and Painting

Monica Loren Sanchez Grunwald

Un Muro De Duelo

Documentations and installations echo the spirit of Dia-de-los-Muertos constructing a monumental shrine that mourns and commemorates the lives taken in American ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) detention centers. Curated objects of Mexican culture and altered photographs that inhabit the ofrenda (altar), respond to the violent barriers migrants experience, and reflect the border and memorial aspects of unjust losses.

“Un Muro De Duelo is an installation that takes elements from the day of the dead’s ofrenda to “alter the altar” and to mourn and commemorate the lives that have been taken at the ICE detention camps under Trump’s association. This installation takes the form of a wall filled with portraits, to opposition Trumps “build the wall” movement. The wall separates two rooms, one that the viewer can see but cannot access, which has a luxury dinner table set up for a family of four in the center of the room. The intent is for the viewer to feel what it is like to be on the opposite side of the wall, to not be able to sit down with your family for dinner, or even to feel the sensation of separation. The frames with skulls intent is to be confronting, specifically to give representation to Mexican culture and to create a space for folks to mourn their departed loves ones.This wall of mourning can act as a shrine to honor the memory of ancestors but also as a barrier between them. The ofrenda is at its core a way to remember loved ones by sharing a meal with them as one would when they were alive. The dinner table is set up for this meal to be shared, but is also inaccessible, to highlight the separation of families.”