Conceived around the theme ‘Territorial,’ the Public sector will transform Collins Park into an outdoor exhibition space of 11 site-responsive works created by established and emerging artists. Curated for the first time by independent curator and critic Philipp Kaiser, the Public sector celebrates its opening on Wednesday December 6 with a special performance at 8pm by Jim Shaw and D’red D’warf in SoundScape Park. Titled The Rinse Cycle after Wagner’s set of operas, the prog rock opera found inspiration in artists such as Genesis, Sun Ra, and Captain Beefheart, and whose plot centers around two births and four apocalypses. The first two movements of the opera combine written music with improvisation, prehistoric chanting, and spoken-word, accompanied by visuals made by the artist specifically for the performance. Read more about the event here, and save it to your calendar.
Highlights among artworks shown at Collins Park include the restaging of Daniel Buren’s historic work Les Guirlandes which originally debuted at Documenta 7 in 1982. This iteration will feature decorative striped flag garlands strung across Collins Park while loudspeakers play in chronological order samples of music spanning centuries, only to be interrupted by the recitation of words for colors in 14 different languages.
Another project evolved from a previous work is Noël Dolla’s Restructuration Spatiale n° 15. Dolla, who was a member of the artist group Support/Surfaces from the late 1960s and 1970s which took painting to a more conceptual level, will create a magical environment for Collins Park that transforms a mangrove of palm trees with strings of 300 blue, white, and red balls, enhanced with LED lights that respond to varying humidity levels.
Cyprien Gaillard’s video work KOE touches on the topic of territorial shifts and displacements as it follows a flock of African- and Asian-born parakeets brought to Europe to be kept as pets, which ultimately find an ecological niche in the urban wilderness of Düsseldorf, Germany. Gaillard’s work often investigates the effects and origins of social change with a focus on the relationship between architecture and nature.
Abraham Cruzvillegas is another artist whose work is largely influenced by his environment. Inspired by shelters in the artist’s hometown of Mexico City, Abraham Cruzvillegas’ Self-reconstructed Ellipsis (2017) is made of bare timber and raw pieces of wood that support angled roofs of tarred cardboard sheets, in reference to improvisatory building tactics common of the area.
In a similar vein to Cruzvillegas’ work, Yto Barrada’s series of sculptures Syrinx (Plumber Assemblage) (2015-2017) is created of plumbing materials - acquired from one of Tangier’s flea markets the Grand Socco - often used by out-of-work plumbers to indicate their availability for hire. Yto’s works show a preoccupation with socio-political and urban issues in Morocco’s present and past.
For the full list of artists participating in the Public sector in Miami Beach, click here