Benhadj & Djilali Gallery | Torstraße 170, 10115 Berlin
INTERNATIONAL MEETING OF THE WORLD’S MOST ACTIVE BORDER REGION: THE TIJUANA-SAN DIEGO BORDER CROSSING. REPRESENTATIVES OF LATIN AMERICA, MEXICO AND THE UNITED STATES JOIN BERLIN-BASED ARTIST FROM MEXICO IN AN ACT OF REFLECTION ABOUT WALLS.
ONE WALL | THREE DAYS | FOUR PERSONALITIES
For the 30th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, two muralists from both sides of the Mexico-US border along with human rights activist join Berlin-based artist from Mexico in a three-day artistic manifestation symbolizing the overcoming of walls for human union.
One Day | Berlin, the one-year art exhibition by Adrian Luz about borders, walls and exclusion at the Benhadj & Djilali Museum enters the last phase.
For the Grand Finale, Adrian Luz and curator and gallery owner, Yasmine Benhadj-Djilali invite Enrique Chiu, leader of the border art movement in Tijuana, Mexico, Mario Torero, ‘artivist’ and leader of the Chicano muralist movement in San Diego, California, and Enrique Morones, founder of the life-saving humanitarian organization, Border Angels, also from San Diego to join him as he breaks down his exhibition wall.
The event takes place during three days and the dismantling process diring several weeks; the artist and curator wish to create human connection and build community bringing people together.
For the exhibition, Adrian Luz has designed and built a large-scale art installation making the visitor feel marginalized and excluded. The metallic sculpture allows, in the widest sense, the creative maneuvering in the personal search for one’s own happiness within a superimposed system.
Throughout the year, Adrian Luz has featured a number of international artists and guest speakers from Mexico, Europe, the United States and Asia to sensitize the public about this topic and create a community of support to help realize his monumental art project, One Day We Will Dance Again, to light the border wall in Tijuana, Mexico (2020).
Benhadj & Djilali presents:
GRAND FINALE | BERLIN 30 | TEAR DOWN THIS WALL | NOV 7 – 9 | 2019
Benhadj & Djilali Gallery | Torstraße 170, 10115 Berlin
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Berlin, November 1, 2019
PROGRAM
November 7
12h – 17h – live painting performance Mario Torero;
18h – 19h – “Artivism and the Chicano Muralist Movement” presentation Mario Torero;
19h – 21h – reception;
November 8
12h – 17h – live painting performance Enrique Chiu;
17h – 18h – “2 Kilometers of Border Art” presentation Enrique Chiu;
November 9
18h – 19h – “Saving Human Lives since 1986” presentation Enrique Morones including film screening “The Border Wall Doesn’t Stop The American Dream” by Julie Holtzhuizer;
19h – 21h – reception; 20h – “Still Moment” performance by Jean Delier;
21h – 22h – “Breaking the Wall” performance Adrian Luz;
PARTICIPANTS
Enrique Chiu, Dr. h. c., is an international artist and muralist with numerous exhibitions in Mexico, E.U.A., Europe, the Middle East, South America and the United states. His works are also part of permanent collections in museums in the United States, Spain, Guatemala and Mexico. He is the creator of the Mural de La Hermandad (Mural of Brotherhood), the worlds longest mural located at the Mexico-US border wall in Tijuana.
Mario Torero is an internationally renowned muralist and a legend of the Chicano community. Co-founder of Chicano Park and the Centro Cultural de la Raza, he has graced the walls of cities all over the world with powerful visions of cultural empowerment. His striking murals have brought new reflections to the San Diego Chicano Civil Rights movement of the 70s.
Enrique Morones Careaga, founder of Border Angels (Angeles de la Frontera), a life-saving volunteer organization since 1986, Mexico’s National Human Rights Awardee 2009. Founder of Gente Unida “Love Has No Borders” and the House of Mexico “I love Mexico” in San Diego’s Balboa Park. Border Angels is best known for saving border-crosser lives by providing water in the desert, and also for opening the “Door of Hope” at friendship park (at the border wall between Mexico-US), so children could hug their deported parents. Enrique Morones, then with the San Diego Padres Professional baseball team, became the first person worldwide, to receive dual nationality with Mexico, from then President of Mexico, Ernesto Zedillo (1998).
Adrian Luz, artist and architect living and working between Tijuana, Los Angeles, Paris, and now Berlin, designs and builds large-scale art installations that transform everyday places of transition into spaces of communication, reflection, and wonder. His works celebrate and encourage the spirit of peace and community, using the universal
element of light to bring people together. His works of art are featured in world-class contemporary art and
innovation festivals in Europe, Mexico and the United States.
Yasmine Benhadj-Djilali is an architect and founder of the Benhadj & Djilali gallery focusing on commercial and simultaneously cultural socially relevant exhibitions and projects, which aim to attract widespread attention among the public and the media. Cities under extreme socio-political conditions – border walls, separation, segregation and human division have been the focus of her research ever since she taught at Darmstadt University (1998-2003).
Gallery Contact Information:
Yasmine Benhadj-Djilali | +49 177 8348793 | galerie@benhadjdjilali.de | www.benhadjdjilali.de
Artist Contact Information:
Adrian Luz | +49 159 01096359 | adriansg.luz@gmail.com | www.adriansierragarcia.com
With this project, Adrian Luz wishes to pay tribute to all those afflicted by political human division.