2023
June 23, 2023
Town Hall: Public Input Kickoff
Bridge Deconstruction
Wolfsonian-FIU, Miami Beach
The Public Input phase of Bridge Deconstruction kicked off with a participatory Town Hall meeting at The Wolfsonian-FIU. Free and open to the public, the gathering was led by DoR Director misael soto. Attendees participated in a group workshop and learned about our Special Commission on Bridges with presentations by our Historical Officers: Philip Cardella, Riley Ford, Juan Lopez, and Susana Perez.
Learn more about Bridge Deconstruction's Public Input Phase here.
August 6, 2023
Fieldwork: Tour #2
Bridge Deconstruction
Bas Fisher Invitational, Miami
(Hi)stories overlapped in situ during this pre-construction bridge tour as we pieced together a communal speculative civil structure connecting The Wolfsonian-FIU’s Bridge Tender House (aka the Josephine Baker Pavilion) with other relevant sites around Miami-Dade County. Fieldwork: Tour #2 is part of the department’s Bridge Deconstruction, a sustained creative investigation undertaken by the Department of Reflection for The Wolfsonian-FIU. The research-based, and context and site-specific collaborative endeavor used bridges and related infrastructure as vectors for individual and communal ideation, storytelling, and creative expression.
Learn more about Bridge Deconstruction's Public Input Phase here.
Begun in 2020, Fieldwork is a nomadic series of site-responsive programming at unique locations. Sparking dialogue between self and site, each Fieldwork provides insight into a location’s histories and its place in our contemporary community. And staying true to its name, at each Fieldwork visitors are invited to conduct their own fieldwork, facilitated through various means, contributing to our communal understanding. Fieldwork has subsequently expanded, going virtual with Fieldwork: Dispatches and expanded again with Fieldwork: Tours.
Fieldwork: Tour #2 was sponsored by Bas Fisher Invitational and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
August 24, 2023
De-Code Compliance (for Monte Castello di Vibio)
Bridge Deconstruction
Poor Farm Living in the Play Residency, Monte Castello di Vibio, Italy
De-Code Compliance (for Monte Castello di Vibio) continued research and development begun at the start of the year in conjunction with Bridge Deconstruction in Miami. Conducted in and around the small medieval walled village in central Umbria, Italy, particular attention was given to a nearby bridge spanning the legendary Tiber River below and the bridge’s multigenerational hybrid construction. Our research culminated with a performative investigation in situ under an architectural arch feature and threshold within the town’s gallery space and the context of Poor Farm's “Living in the Play: Nido II” residency exhibition featuring 17 artists. Over the course of a day, DoR director misael soto used various tools, writing, and found and taken images in order to visually and conceptually layer geographies, bridges, architectural and infrastructural elements, histories, and recent thoughts and theories. misael engaged with visitors to bring in further layers and recordings of their findings were made on the walls and floor as the process unfolded.