American Academy Lecture at the Neue Nationalgalerie

A Discussion with Hamza Walker

Join curator and writer Hamza Walker for a talk on the exhibition MONUMENTS (Oct. 3, 2025 – May 6, 2026), the highly acclaimed show co-organized by MOCA and The Brick in Los Angeles. Walker will discuss the conception and evolution of the exhibition, the politics of monumentality, and the role contemporary art can play in confronting unresolved histories.

Co-curated by Hamza Walker, Bennett Simpson, and Kara Walker, MONUMENTS examined the recent removal of Confederate monuments in the United States and the ongoing debates surrounding public memory, race, and national identity. Removed from their original civic settings and shown in varying states of transformation—from intact to vandalized—the monuments were reconsidered not as fixed historical symbols, but as contested objects shaped by political conflict and changing historical consciousness. MONUMENTS brought together decommissioned monuments alongside contemporary artworks by artists including Bethany Collins, Stan Douglas, Cauleen Smith, and Kara Walker to reflect upon how public monuments continue to shape historical narratives in the present.