MUSEUM OF ART AND DESIGN AT MDC OPENS ITS NEW EXHIBITION WITH A PANEL DISCUSSION AND THE CHAOS OPERA, A PERFORMANCE BY ANDROS ZINS-BROWNE

Miami, FL, May 7, 2019Museum of Art and Design (MOAD) at Miami Dade College (MDC) will inaugurate the new exhibition, Where the Oceans Meet, with a panel discussion and experimental vocal performance by Andros Zins-Browne on Sunday, May 26. The panel discussion with two artists in the exhibition–Zins-Browne and Daniel Boyd—and two of its curators—Asad Raza and Rina Carvajal—will be held at 3 p.m., followed by Zins-Browne’s The Chaos Opera at 4 p.m.

In the panel discussion, Boyd, Carvajal, Raza, and Zins-Browne will consider ideas that underlie the exhibition Where the Oceans Meet. How have Lydia Cabrera and Édouard Glissant’s writings and methodologies influenced practices in contemporary art and curation? How do notions the two Caribbean writers explored—ideas such as globality, creolization, and cosmology—help us makes sense of historic narratives and our contemporary moment? What does it mean to think, live, and act where the oceans meet?

Zins-Browne’s The Chaos Opera draws upon Glissant’s defense of chaos as a mechanism for coping with and embracing difference. The performance brings together voices from diverse musical traditions—R&B, bolero, death metal, rap, and opera—to explore how different voices might cohabitate in the same space without capitulating, assimilating, or forcing cohesion. Rather than the idealized harmonies of “fusion” music, it asks how different voices can maintain their opacity in relation to each other, and how such a cacophony might allow new forms, voices, and hybrid languages to emerge. The Chaos Opera will be performed by Dyna Edyne, Michale Grafals, Celeste Landeros, Niuvis Martin, and Nad Pitt.

Andros Zins-Browne (born New York, New York 1981) is an American choreographer who lives and works in New York and Brussels. He makes performances at the intersection of installation, performance, and dance that twist the virtual and the embodied.  His work has been shown at a.o.- Centre Pompidou, Paris; ICA, London; Kaaitheater, Brussels, Het Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. His solo performance Already Unmade was commissioned by the Boghossian Foundation and has been performed at BOZAR Museum, Brussels; The Whitney Museum, New York City; the Rockbund Museum, Shanghai, and the Fondation Galeries Lafayette for Festival d’Automne, Paris. In collaboration with artist Karthik Pandian, he received a 2018 grant from the Graham Foundation for the performance and exhibition series Atlas Unlimited. Recently, Andros collaborated with choreographer Will Rawls to present “remixes” of work by video artist Tony Cokes for the 10th Berlin Biennial and of avant-garde choreographer Simone Forti’s See-Saw at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City. In 2013, Andros founded The Great Indoors, an association for artistic research and production.

Asad Raza (born in Buffalo, USA) is an artist who combines experiences, human and non-human beings, and objects in his work. Since 2017, he has curated a series of exhibitions centering on Édouard Glissant.

Daniel Boyd (born 1982, Cairns, Queensland) reinterprets Eurocentric perspectives of Australian history, often appropriating images that have played significant roles in the formation and dissemination of that history.  Since 2005, his work has been exhibited at institutions and biennials around the world and is included in prominent collections. He is also the first indigenous Australian to win the prestigious Bulgari Art Award.

Rina Carvajal is the Director and Chief Curator of the Museum of Art and Design at Miami Dade College.

 Where the Oceans Meet is an exhibition of modern and contemporary art that resonates with the pioneering thought of two Caribbean writers, Lydia Cabrera and Édouard Glissant. The international group of thirty-eight artists and collectives in the exhibition considers notions of shifting and porous borders—geographic, national, cultural, social, racial, ethnic, and linguistic—and how crossing borders has shaped our world. Where the Oceans Meet will be on view from May 26 to Sept. 29.

Organized by MOAD and Americas Society, New York, Where the Oceans Meet is curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Asad Raza, Gabriela Rangel, and Rina Carvajal. The exhibition is made possible by the support of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, and the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners. We gratefully acknowledge the collaboration of the Cuban Heritage Collection of the University of Miami Libraries, Diana Flatto, Assistant Curator of Visual Arts, Americas Society, Jose Antonio Navarrete, and Nadia Naami, as well as the generosity of all the lenders to the exhibition.

In April 2018, the Museum of Art and Design, Miami Dade College’s flagship museum, reopened with a renewed belief that art and design can change our communities and the world. MOAD offers groundbreaking exhibitions and programs that explore the challenges and opportunities we face locally and globally. Its programming convenes leading artists, designers, and thinkers to address the urgent questions of our time. MOAD strives to be a catalyst for action and a place that empowers people to rethink and remake their city. As the museum of Miami Dade College, MOAD follows its lead in operating throughout the city. Based in Downtown Miami’s Historic Freedom Tower, MOAD considers itself a Museum Without Boundaries. Its programing takes place in many neighborhoods, inviting everyone to be a part of the conversation. MOAD’s aim is to foster a reimagined Miami, built by and with its citizens.

WHAT:             Panel discussion and performance of The Chaos Opera

WHEN:             Sunday, May 26, 3 p.m. (panel) and 4 p.m. (performance)

WHERE:           Museum of Art and Design at MDC, Freedom Tower, 600 Biscayne Boulevard

Museum Hours: Wednesday 1 – 6 p.m.; Thursday 1 – 8 p.m.; Friday–Sunday 1 – 6 p.m.

Museum admission: $12 adults; $8 seniors and military; $5 students (13–17) and college students (with valid ID); free for MOAD members, MDC students, faculty, and staff, and children 12 and under.  Accessibility challenges: please call (305) 237-7710 for details.

For updates and a full schedule of events, please visit http://www.mdcmoad.org/.

Press Contacts: JWI PR—Jessica Wade Pfeffer: 305-804-8424, jessica@jwipr.com; or Juliana Gutierrez: 305-991-4259, juliana@jwipr.com.