Al río / To the River—A Panel Discussion in New York

Art at Americas Society and the Chinati Foundation are pleased to present Al río / To the River—A Panel Discussion in New York, featuring Zoe Leonard, José Esparza Chong Cuy, and Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa.

The event will explore and expand upon Leonard’s major photographic project. The program will begin with presentations by José Esparza Chong Cuy and Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa, followed by a conversation with Zoe Leonard. Aimé Iglesias Lukin, director and chief curator of Americas Society, will moderate the discussion. A reception will follow to close the evening.

Wednesday, October 15, from 6:00 to 8:00 pm 
Americas Society 
680 Park Ave 
Registration is required.
RSVP HERE
Early arrival is suggested as space is limited, and entry is not guaranteed for late arrivals.

This program is organized in partnership with The Chinati Foundation/La Fundación Chinati.

Al río / To the River, exhibited for the first time in the Americas at Chinati, is a major new work by Leonard. Produced over a period of six years, beginning in 2016, the work poses the question: “What does it mean to ask a body of water to perform a political task?” Consisting of photographs taken along the 1,200 mile stretch where the Rio Grande/Río Bravo is used to demarcate the international boundary between Mexico and the United States, Al río follows the river from the border cities of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, and El Paso, Texas, to the Gulf of Mexico. The work challenges notions of fixity, photographic and otherwise, in a variety of overlapping contexts, including the Treaty of Guadalupe, which established the river as the international border in 1848 and the Rio Grande Rectification of 1933, when the two countries began a coordinated attempt to restrict the river’s natural meander, among many others. 

The program's recording will be available on this website and on the Art at Americas Society YouTube channel.

Speakers:

Zoe Leonard’s exhibition Al río / To the river was most recently on view at the Chinati Foundation, Marfa from 2024-2025 and was previously exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney; MUDAM, Luxembourg; and Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris in 2022 and 2023. A survey of Leonard’s work was held at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles in 2018. A previous survey of photographic work took place at the Fotomuseum Winterthur; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; and Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich in 2007 and 2008. Other solo exhibitions have occurred at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Camden Arts Centre, London; Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna; Dia: Beacon, New York; Villa Arson, Nice; Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Kunsthalle Basel; Secession, Vienna; The Renaissance Society, Chicago and other museums. Her work has been included in Documenta IX in 1992 and Documenta XII in 2007 and in the Whitney Biennial in 1993, 1997 and 2014 for which she won the Bucksbaum Award.

Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa (b. 1980, UK/Uganda) is an artist, writer, and editor. His recent publications include INDEX2025 (Roma, 2025), “ECHO—LOCATION” (e-flux Journal #153), Indeterminacy: Thoughts on Time, the Image, and Race(ism), co-written with David Campany (MACK, 2022); Dark Mirrors (MACK, 2021); and the photographic monograph Hiding in Plain Sight, co-authored with Ben Alper (Harun Farocki Institute, 2020). His solo exhibition, Scene at Eastman (George Eastman Museum, 2024-5) closed in Spring 2025, and is the subject of an eponymous short film (directed by Adam Golfer, 2025).

José Esparza Chong Cuy works as executive director and chief curator at Storefront for Art and Architecture. From 2019–2025 he was also a part of the curatorial council of the Museo Tamayo in Mexico City. Prior to arriving at Storefront in 2018, he was Associate Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and the Museo Jumex in Mexico City. Between 2007–2012, he also lived in New York and held positions as curatorial associate at Storefront, Research Fellow at the New Museum, and contributing editor at Domus magazine. In 2013 he was co-curator of the Lisbon Architecture Triennale. In addition organizing exhibitions at the institutions he’s been affiliated with, José has has curated shows in Mexico at the Museo Palacio de Bellas Artes, Museo Tamayo, and MARCO, as well as in Brazil at MASP, and in Spain at La Casa Encendida and Collegium. José is a graduate of Columbia University’s Masters of Science in Critical, Curatorial, and Conceptual Practices in Architecture.