Lounging with Zozobra: Pop-up Exhibit
Lounging with Zozobra: Pop-up Exhibit
A vignette of works highlighting Zozobra’s 100th anniversary
August 20, 2024 - September 22, 2024
This year is the 100th anniversary of Zozobra, a favorite Santa Fe tradition featuring a multistory effigy/marionette that is burned each year to purge the community’s glooms. To celebrate the occasion, MOIFA will present two pop-up displays related to two of the most popular aspects of Santa Fe Fiestas, along with hands-on all-ages art programs.
“Lounging with Zozobra,” a vignette of three works highlighting Zozobra imagery, will be on view August 20 to September 22, 2024. It also includes an orginal 1920s “Quisicosa” head by Will Shuster. In Spanish, quisicosa is an enigma or conundrum, and this large-scale, quirky head is certainly enigmatic. It is one of four that MOIFA acquired in 1985 as a gift from the Santa Fe Fiesta Council. These heads were worn as part of certain Fiesta activities until 1984, when new ones were created.
Also on display “Wooden Menagerie on Parade” is MOIFA’s nod to the popular Santa Fe Fiesta event Desfile de los Niños, also know popularly as the Pet Parade. For only 15 days, August 29 to September 12, 2024, a selection of 42 carved and painted animals—all from MOIFA’s collections—will take up residence in the museum’s auditorium.
In conjunction with these Fiesta pop-up displays, the museum will host several hands-on art making family programs:
Sunday, August 25, 10am-4pm: Make & Take @ MOIFA, Create a Birthday Card for Zozobra! Hands-on fun, take your birthday card home with you, or let us deliver it to the Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe, the organizers of the Burning of Zozobra. Selected cards will be posted on social media in the days leading up to the burning of Zozobra on August 30th. All supplies provided. By museum admission.
Sunday, September 1, 1-3pm: Animal Paint-Fest with artist Ron Archuleta Rodriguez. Check out the Wooden Menagerie on Parade in the museum’s auditorium, then participate in a group project painting large carved-wood animals made by Ron, or create your own peg animal. All supplies provided. Painting will take place in the Outdoor Classroom. Free First Sunday admission for New Mexico residents.
Sunday, September 8th, 10am-4pm: Make & Take @ MOIFA, Celebrate Animals on Parade by making your own Folk Art animal. Be inspired by the New Mexico Hispano tradition of wooden carved animals on display in our pop-up exhibit in our Auditorium “Wooden Menagerie on Parade”, or draw inspiration from your own days in the Santa Fe pet parade. All supplies provided. By museum admission.