Halloween City, 2022

Gómez-Peña is a performance artist, writer, activist, and educator whose work explores identity and border politics. He is the founder and artistic director of the international performance troupe La Pocha Nostra. In one of his earliest performances, The Loneliness of the Immigrant, Gómez-Peña lay wrapped in fabric on an elevator floor in downtown Los Angeles. A sign on the elevator wall read: “Moving to another country hurts more than moving to another house, another face, another lover. In one way or another, we all are or will be immigrants. Surely one day we will be able to crack this shell open, this unbearable loneliness, and develop a transcontinental identity.” Elevator passengers reacted to the mysterious package with surprise, distrust, and often aggression. Eventually, building security evacuated the artist and placed him in a trash bin. The performance was set to last 24 hours.