Detour Plot alludes to literal and metaphorical boundaries

After a few months of closure due to the coronavirus, the MET NY reopens its doors to the public with an intriguing installation on the terrace. Amid the conflicts of the elections and recent social tensions, Mexican visual artist Héctor Zamora signs “Lattice Detour”, a wall at reverse that promotes a reflection on borders, barriers and walls. The work is 33 m long and 3 m high. It is a paradox, dividing the view of Central Park without completely isolating it. The “Plot of Diversion” (translation by Zamora himself, who lived in Brazil for ten years) , is made of terracotta bricks, however, instead of being arranged in the traditional way, they were stacked vertically, taking advantage of the geometry of the structure and forming an openwork pattern, like cobogós.

The artist's Mexican roots are present throughout the sculpture. The bricks were purchased in Monterrey, in northern Mexico, and the masons who built the wall were Latin American, some Mexican. Considering the relationship between the United States and Mexico, the connection between the work and the wall proposed by Donald Trump in 2016 is inevitable. However, Zamora also had other barriers in mind, both more literal ones, such as those imposed by the migration crisis, and metaphorical ones, such as racism, misogyny and prejudice. For him, the general idea of exclusion translates into divisions of various natures. The significance of the recent period of social isolation - which even postponed the inauguration of Trama de Desvio - also emerges between the gaps in the bricks. It is a fact that different social classes suffered from the coronavirus pandemic in very different ways. The social divide had an enormous weight between those who were infected and those who had access to treatment. Zamora even mentions Bolsonaro's government as a regrettable reality, along with Trump's. The question that remains is who will reach out through the wall, to the other side.