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Taste of Exile and MenuFesto
We are pleased to present Taste of Exile and MenuFesto, a pop-up project presented on Saturday, January 10 and Sunday, January 11, 2026. The project explores immigration and exile within the food service industry – which relies heavily on immigrant labor but often does not acknowledge the contribution.
Step into a shared ritual of storytelling, where traditional Mexican and Indigenous cuisine meets virtual reality (VR).
Visitors will participate in an immersive, multi-sensory, 360°, interactive event, lasting approximately 15 minutes. The project animates cooking itself – through gesture, rhythm, repetition and heat – while recalling the lived experience of exile and the layered histories carried by a single dish. During the VR presentation, participants are invited to eat a taco prepared by renowned Mexican and Indigenous chef Cristina Martinez and her team. Taste of Exile uses nourishment as a way to explore immigration as an embodied, lived experience shaped by displacement, resilience and generosity.
Each Taste of Exile session will accommodate ten participants in a fully-guided, immersive dining experience using a VR headset. To participate in one of the free-of-charge, approximately 15-minutes sessions offered from 12 – 7pm each day, registration is required.
Register here
Please read all important notes below prior to registering
Presented in a second gallery, MenuFesto brings together interviews with immigrant food truck and restaurant workers – including cooks and servers – from Columbus, OH and Philadelphia, PA. Text excerpts and audio recordings are interwoven with 3D scans of food truck and kitchen environments, tracing participants’ journeys while reflecting on the material, emotional and creative facets of their work. MenuFesto highlights their contributions and encourages visitors to consider the creativity, labor and resilience of the people who feed them.
Important Notes:
- Advance registration is required. Up to two guests may be added per reservation.
- Registration is for a 30-minute window. If you have not arrived within 5 minutes of your stated time – your seat will be released. Late arrivals cannot be accommodated. Participants are welcome to arrive up to 30 minutes before their scheduled time. Please plan accordingly.
- This experience is intended for individuals aged 13 and above. Participants between the ages of 13 and 18 must be accompanied by a parent/guardian.
- Participants will receive one carefully prepared taco as part of the dining ritual. This is not a meal, but rather a symbolic, conceptual and sensory offering.
- Two options are available: traditional barbacoa (slow-cooked lamb) or a vegan preparation (root vegetable). Both are served on corn tortillas and may have been processed near nuts, seeds or other allergens.
- This experience includes the use of Virtual Reality (Meta Quest 3) headsets and is not recommended for individuals with sensitivity to immersive environments, motion sickness, epilepsy or other VR-related health concerns.
- The event will take place on the second floor of The Print Center, which is housed in a late 19th century building and is not ADA-accessible. It is necessary to climb a flight of stairs to reach the second floor. We regret this limitation and appreciate your understanding.
Taste of Exile is created and directed by interdisciplinary art and technology artist Illya Mousavijad and features James Beard Award–winning Mexican and Indigenous chef Cristina Martinez of South Philly Barbacoa in collaboration with scholar Paloma Martinez-Cruz and graphic researcher Jeremy Patterson. MenuFesto is an archival project organized by Martinez-Cruz in collaboration with Mousavijad.
Read essays written by Mousavijad and Martinez-Cruz
This project is sponsored by Global Arts + Humanities | Cross-Disciplinary Exchange
The Ohio State University
About the Collaborators (left to right):
Cristina Martinez, (born Capulhuac, Mexico; lives Philadelphia, PA)
Project Protagonist and Chef
lllya Mousavijad, (born Isfahan, Iran; lives Columbus, OH)
Project Director and Computer Animation Artist
Paloma Martinez-Cruz, (born Los Angeles, CA; lives Columbus, OH)
Project Advisor and Director of MenuFesto
Jeremy Patterson, (born Findlay, OH; lives Columbus, OH)
Computer Graphics and Interactive Design Engineer
Cristina Martinez is a renowned chef, political activist and the owner of South Philly Barbacoa and Casa Mexico. She learned the traditional barbacoa technique at an early age, and established the celebrated South Philly Barbacoa in 2015. It is known as the ultimate destination for lovers of authentic Mexican barbecue – and is recognized for its juicy slow-cooked meats and handmade tortillas. In 2022, Martinez received the James Beard Award for Best Chef, Mid-Atlantic. She has also been lauded by the Eater Awards, appeared on Bon Appétit’s Best New Restaurant list, received the first Faces of Diversity Award from the National Restaurant Association, and was the subject of an episode of the Netflix series Chef’s Table. Martinez works on behalf of immigrants’ rights in the U.S., advocating for undocumented workers in the restaurant industry. Illya Mousavijad received a BFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and an MFA from the Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, both in Philadelphia, PA. He is Assistant Professor of Art and Technology, in the Department of Art, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH. He is an interdisciplinary, conceptual artist whose artistic practice investigates the limits and extent of exile; exile literature; pro-justice movements and civil resistance; border and identity politics. He works across computer animation, virtual reality, installation, painting, sculpture and video. He has collaborated with international artists of various disciplines and exhibited globally. Paloma Martinez-Cruz received a PhD from Columbia University, New York, NY and is Professor of Latinx Cultural and Literary Studies, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, The Ohio State University, Columbus. She teaches in the areas of performance and popular culture; decolonial methods and practices; and Latin American and Latinx gender studies and feminisms. An interdisciplinary scholar-artist, she writes poetry and fiction, directs and performs with the Taco Reparations Brigade performance troupe and coordinates Onda Latinx Ohio, an arts initiative showcasing Latinx arts from the Midwest and beyond. Martinez-Cruz is the author of Trust the Circle: The Resistance and Resilience of Rubén Castilla Herrera (Arcadia Publishing, 2023), Food Fight! Millennial Mestizaje Meets the Culinary Marketplace (The University of Arizona Press, 2019) and Women and Knowledge in Mesoamerica: From East L.A. to Anahuac (The University of Arizona Press, 2011). She is the editor of A Handbook for the Rebel Artist in a Post-Democratic Society by Guillermo Gómez-Peña and Saúl García-López (Routledge, 2021). Jeremy Patterson is a Senior Graphics Researcher at the Advanced Computing Center for Arts and Design, The Ohio State University, Columbus. He specializes in virtual and augmented reality; computer vision, user experience design and research; and game creation. Patterson is recognized as a skilled multi-disciplinary expert who crafts integrated, interactive experiences for humans of all ages. His current research projects include a first-responder triage VR training simulation in collaboration with the Wexner Medical Center; a suite of virtual field labs in conjunction with the College of Social Work; and a mixed-reality training application for cardiac procedures in collaboration with the Wexner Medical Center, at The Ohio State University.