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How could we ignore an art exhibition with a name like The Donkey Show? The salacious title is sure to draw a crowd at two events tonight at the Santa Monica Museum of Art, which examine the intersection of reality and urban legend in Tijuana. The audio-visual art show focuses on the “American expectations, misconceptions, and fantasies of Mexico."
The SMMoA show features two different donkeys—one that lives in the dark corners of Mexican society: "The myth of the donkey show proliferated as Tijuana’s reputation as a den of ill repute grew in the American mind, from U.S. sex comics such as Tijuana Bibles and early U.S. smut films set in Tijuana, to local burlesque and prostitution houses real, the other imaginary...." The other donkey lets American tourists sit and pose for pictures with requisite sombreros atop their heads, looking, well, like asses themselves.
Tonight’s first event at 7 pm—at Track 16, Bergamot Station C-1, across from the museum—features a conversation between show curators Jim Heimann, cultural anthropologist and graphic design historian, and Josh Kun, author, music critic and USC professor, with special guest Bill Nericcio, author of Tex[t]-Mex: Seductive Hallucinations of the "Mexican" in America.
Following the discussion will be a fiesta in the SMMoA courtyard from 8-10 pm, featuring a DJ set by Clorofila (Nortec Collective) with VJ CRO, tequila by Peligroso, snacks by El Cholo, and a photo-op donkey cart by Gary Garay.
Admission to the events are free. RSVP to rsvp@smmoa.orgwith subject header 'The Donkey Show' or call 310.453.9184.
The Donkey Show Conversation and Party
Santa Monica Museum of Art/Bergamot Station
2525 Michigan Ave., Santa Monica
7 pm
