Lit & Luz: Náa’ Reza [Broken Hand], a Conversation with Ana Hernández

Náa’ Reza [Broken Hand]: A Conversation with Ana Hernández

A live English translation sponsored by Interprenet will be available for audience members.

In this Spanish language talk, Oaxacan artist and current Hyde Park Art Center’s Jackman Goldwasser Resident, Ana Hernández, will give a presentation on her latest exhibition Náa’ Reza [Broken Hand] currently on view at the Laboratorio Arte Alameda in Mexico City.

The artworks featured in the exhibition include video, performance, installation and printmaking, and center around the tradition of the comixcal, a large-rounded clay pot used daily in the kitchens of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Hernández will describe how she combines traditional techniques with contemporary expressions, questioning how we inhabit the land, to whom it belongs, what resources we extract from it, and how it affects us through what we eat.

Following her presentation, Hernández will be joined by Mexico City-based curator and writer Esteban King Álvarez and Chicago-based researcher Andrea Reed-Leal for a conversation discussing the exhibition and the artist’s role in addressing contemporary issues around food sovereignty, our approach to technology, and the cultural relationships to food and the land in Mexico. A reception will follow, sponsored by the Consulate General of Mexico in Chicago.

This event is presented in partnership with the Lit & Luz Festival, National Museum of Mexican Art, Consulate General of Mexico in Chicago, and is supported in part through a partnership residency at Hyde Park Art Center.

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Náa’ Reza [Mano rota]: Una conversación con Ana Hernández

En esta charla en español, la artista oaxaqueña y actual residente del programa Jackman Goldwasser del Hyde Park Art Center, Ana Hernández, hablará sobre su última exposición Náa’ Reza [Mano rota] actualmente expuesta en el Museo Laboratorio Arte Alameda en la Ciudad de México.

Las obras de arte que forman parte de la exposición incluyen videos, performance, instalación y grabado. Se centran en la tradición del comixcal, una olla de barro de gran tamaño que se usa a diario en las cocinas del Istmo de Tehuantepec. Hernández describe cómo combina técnicas tradicionales con expresiones contemporáneas, cuestionando cómo habitamos la tierra, a quién pertenece, qué recursos extraemos de ella y cómo afecta todo esto a nuestra alimentación.

Seguido a esta presentación, Hernández se reunirá con el curador y escritor mexicano Esteban King Álvarez y con la investigadora Andrea Reed-Leal, residente de Chicago, para conversar sobre la exposición y el papel de la artista al abordar problemáticas contemporáneas en torno a la soberanía alimentaria, nuestro enfoque en la tecnología y las relaciones culturales con la comida y la tierra en México. Para cerrar el evento, se ofrecerá una recepción patrocinada por el Consulado General de México en Chicago.

Este evento se presenta en colaboración con con el Festival Lit & Luz, el Museo Nacional de Arte Mexicano, el Consulado General de México en Chicago y es apoyada en parte por la residencia proveída por el Hyde Park Art Center.

Interprenet patrocinará una traducción simultánea al inglés para los miembros del público.

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The 12th annual Lit & Luz Festival of Language, Literature, and Art—as featured in, WBEZ’s Reset with Sasha-Ann Simons, Chicago Review of Books, Block Club Chicago, and more—takes place November 9 to November 14, 2025. This one-of-a-kind cross-cultural, bilingual festival brings together writers, poets, and visual artists from Mexico and Chicago for a week-long series of public programming at venues throughout Chicago.

This year’s festival––under the theme of “Repair/Reparar”–– explores how writers, poets, and artists from Chicago and Mexico critically examine the artist’s role in impacting and offering new perspectives on what it takes to face and reimagine our shared realities.

To learn more, visit litluz.org