Mexican Artist Bosco Sodi Erects Brick Wall ‘Made by Mexicans’ in NYC

Mexican-born artist Bosco Sodi put on a very public “political performance” Thursday, unveiling a 6 feet high, 26 feet long brick wall art installation in Washington Square Park in New York City.

“I wanted to create a wall made by Mexicans with Mexican earth,” Sodi told the New York Times of his one-day political installation, which will stand from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday or until passersby dismantle the wall brick-by-brick. “Then the disappearance of the wall will be by the community and all kinds of people who visit the park.”

Called “Muro,” which translates to “wall” in Spanish, the wall was presented in partnership with the Paul Kasmin Gallery, where the New York-based artist will have a show opening in November. The 1,600 clay timbers used to erect the massive installation were fired in Oaxaca, Mexico.

The wall was “built by Mexicans living in New York,” reports theartnewspaper.com, which quoted Sodi as saying he wanted the wall to be received as a “political piece” more than a work of art.

“It’s my first political performance, but I just felt I had to do it now,” Sodi said according to the outlet. “I didn’t want to leave the wall up too long, because it would look more like a work of art than a political piece.”

The idea for the wall, the artist said, came shortly after Donald Trump’s inauguration.

“Trump had just been inaugurated and things were tense politically,” Sodi said. “I was talking to the eight or nine craftsmen and they were telling me stories about how they wanted to emigrate to the US, but how that’s impossible right now.”

Dismantling the wall, Sodi said, is “about breaking down walls physically and mentally.”

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