I had the pleasure to invite Eugenio Salas to activate his Communal Griddle sculpture, made during his residency at RAIR from reclaimed waste metal, for the Berman Museum’s Latin Jazz Social. Alluding to the origins of photography, as a nod to the Enrique Bostelmann exhibition on display in the museum, we constructed a camera [which translates to room] in which Eugenio and his collaborators would perform thereby projecting their images (shadows) on the transparent screen.

A few weeks later, we reactivated the Communal Griddle for a one-of-a-kind performance with James Beard Award-winning chef Cristina Martinez (South Philly Barbacoa/Casa Mexico). Cristina demonstrated the process of grinding maize into masa, then pressing the masa into tortillas that were cooked on Eugenio’s griddle. Together their performance produced barbacoa tacos for the audience to enjoy. This was followed by the first Picturing the Border Speaker Series with a conversation between Cristina, Eugenio, and curator Jovanna Venegas. They discussed their work as artists who use food and communion to communicate, as artists who immigrated to the United States from Mexico, and how the border has impacted their lives and their careers.