Artist Bosco Sodi to build a wall in New York made of 1,600 removable clay timbers

Date
1 September 2017
Above

A rendering of Muro, photo courtesy of Studio Bosco Sodi.

Mexican-based artist Bosco Sodi is set to erect his first public installation in New York, at Washington Square Park. Titled Muro, the installation will be constructed from 1,600 removable clay timbers, fired by hand at Bosco’s studio in Oaxaca, Mexico, forming a two-metre-high by eight-metrelong wall. 

Muro will be exhibited on 7 September for one day only where visitors will be able to take home a timber, each sealed by the artist with his signature embedded. The installation acts as a “communally co-owned work of art”, that expands on Bosco’s “ongoing interest in organic processes beyond the artist’s control”. Alongside this, the wall evokes metaphors to overthrow the primary function of a wall as a “device of separation”, and instead “empowers the community to remove this physical barrier and its inherent symbolism.” 

From the start to finish, and once the wall has been completely dismantled by the audience, Bosco aims to link the evolution of the sculpture to “civic participation so that the shared response and action of individuals become implicit subjects of Sodi’s work”.

Bosco has exhibited his work internationally and among collections such as Jumex Collection, Mexico; Vitra Museum, Switzerland; Deutsche Bank Collection, New York; Contemporary Art Foundation, Japan; Murderme, London and various others. He has also taken part in exhibitions including Por los siglos de los siglos, Museo Nacional de Arte in Mexico City (2017) and Museum of Stones, The Noguchi Museum in New York plus many more. 

Muro precedes Bosco’s debut exhibition at Paul Kasmin Gallery, taking place from 2 November – 22 December 2017.

Above

Bosco Sodi, Muro, 2017 (Rendering)

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About the Author

Ayla Angelos

Ayla is a London-based freelance writer, editor and consultant specialising in art, photography, design and culture. After joining It’s Nice That in 2017 as editorial assistant, she was interim online editor in 2022/2023 and continues to work with us on a freelance basis. She has written for i-D, Dazed, AnOther, WePresent, Port, Elephant and more, and she is also the managing editor of design magazine Anima. 

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