the
reclamation
project
South Beach to be
“reclaimed” for mangroves during Art Basel 2006
Miami Beach, FL ----Miami artist Xavier Cortada is working
with volunteers on Miami Beach to raise environmental
awareness through the creation of a major public art
project called The Reclamation Project. The artist will
dramatize the destruction of the native mangrove forest
with an installation consisting of over 2,500 mangrove
seedlings in clear cups to be displayed in the windows of
South Beach business from November through January. At
the end of the project, the seedlings will be collected
and used to reforest a portion of Biscayne Bay.
In a 1915 photo, Miami
Beach founder Carl Fisher poses with Rosie the elephant as
they help clear the “swamps” to make way for Lincoln
Road. We now know that these mangrove forests are vital
to establishing a healthy habitat for marine life, birds
and other animals. Through the project, Cortada, hopes
“to remind us we must learn to coexist with nature in our
urban settings, instead of relegating it to nature
preserves.”
A pre-Art Basel
reception for the project volunteers is scheduled for
December 5th, 2006 from 8p to midnight at Bill Baggs State
Park in Key Biscayne, featuring Full Moon tours of the
Cape Florida Lighthouse.
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The Reclamation
Project was launched at the opening of an installation by the same name
exhibited at the Bass Museum of Art
from April 22nd, Earth Day, until May 17th, 2006.
To learn more, please
click below.
bass invite | installation | de-installation
| reforestation
Sponsors
The project is
presented by
Citizens for a Better
South Florida and the
Miami-Dade County Department of Environmental Resources
Management (DERM), with the Biscayne Bay Aquatic
Preserve/State of Florida Department of Environmental
Protection (DEP), the City of Miami Beach and the
Environmental Coalition of Miami Beach (ECOMB). In-kind
support and funding is also provided by a host of
community organizations, corporations and foundations.
To learn more about the project including volunteer
opportunities and event dates and locations contact
artist.
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Artist's
Statement
The Reclamation Project
aims to remind
us of what our community was like before all the concrete
was poured. Through this installation, mangrove seedlings will conceptually
reclaim an island where they thrived a few decades ago.
Their reforestation will create a mangrove colony on Biscayne Bay, eventually rebuilding natural ecosystems above and
below the water line. Through this process I explore
our ability to coexist with the natural world.
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About the Artist
Xavier Cortada was born in Albany, New York and was raised
and lives in Miami. The Cuban-American artist holds three degrees
from the University of Miami. His work has been shown across four
continents and is in the permanent collection of The World Bank. Major collaborative art projects include International
AIDS murals in Switzerland and South Africa, peace murals in
Northern Ireland and Cyprus and child welfare murals in Bolivia and
Panama.
Through his art, he attempts to reclaim
Florida's fertile past. The concrete columns that hold up
I-95 through downtown Miami now bear Cortada's mark: in
2004, he led volunteers in painting colorful mangrove seedlings on columns
across four neighborhoods, a metaphoric re-foresting of Miami. He has elaborated on the mangrove metaphor
in murals he created for Miami City Hall, the Miami-Dade
County Commission Chambers, the Florida Capitol, and the
Museum of Florida History.
For more information, please visit
www.cortada.com.
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