Miami, FL, Oct 7, 2019—Museum of Art and Design (MOAD) at Miami Dade College (MDC) will present Archivo Vivo (Live Archive), an innovative and dynamic performative lecture by members of Mapa Teatro, the Colombian interdisciplinary artistic group, that explores issues of urbanism, power, the public sphere, and the archive. Archivo Vivo will take place in the MDC Live Arts Lab Bldg. 1 at 7 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 2. The event is free and open to the public.
In in front of projected images, documents, and video testimonies, Rolf and Heidi Abderhalden, directors of the Colombian group Mapa Teatro, will reflect on five projects in the Santa Inés district of Bogotá, also known as El Cartucho, “the cartridge.” In one of the most ambitious urban renewal projects in Colombia, the extremely impoverished neighborhood was demolished, and a monumental park was constructed on its ruins. Between 2002 and 2005, Mapa Teatro recorded the destruction of the barrio while developing projects with its displaced former residents. These collaborative and communal endeavors resulted in theatrical performances, installations, and site-specific presentations that reflect Mapa Teatro’s self-description as a “laboratory of the social imagination.” Equally political and poetic, the lecture-performance Archivo Vivo constitutes an experimental investigation of the myths, histories, and contemporary sentiments that live within an archive.
Mapa Teatro was founded in Paris in 1984 by siblings Heidi, Elizabeth, and Rolf Abderhalden, theater and visual artists who relocated the group to Bogotá two years later. Experimenting with performance, installation, opera, theater, and ethnographic film, they stage their live arts events with the intention of transgressing geographical, linguistic, and artistic boundaries while addressing issues of both local and global concern. Conceived of as a transdisciplinary laboratory, Mapa Teatro engages with current, historic, and mythic events, deploying archives and documents as departure points for creative reinterpretations. Their work has been produced at international theater festivals including the Festival d’ Avignon, the Festival d’Automne à Paris, and the Festival International New Drama (FIND) in Berlin, and has appeared at art institutions such as the Reina Sofia Museum, the Bienal de São Paulo and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Archivo Vivo was first developed in 2011 at the Injured Cities, Urban Afterlives conference at Columbia University in New York to commemorate the tenth anniversary of 9/11.
Archivo Vivo is part of MOAD’s A City of the People series, which will take place at multiple locations throughout Miami from April to December of this year. A City of the People will feature a wide range of art experiences, screenings, readings, and public programs that explore what it means to exist in, and as, an urban community. The cross-disciplinary, cutting-edge programming of A City of the People is part of MOAD’s Museum Without Boundaries initiative, which contributes to a discussion on art’s capacity to reimagine civic life.
Archivo Vivo is made possible by the generous support of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, the Cultural Affairs Council, and the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners, and partly sponsored by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture.
Located in Miami’s National Historic Landmark Freedom Tower, Museum of Art and Design (MOAD) at MDC offers groundbreaking exhibitions and programs that aim to foster a reimagined Miami. Exploring the challenges and opportunities we face locally and globally, MOAD convenes artists, designers, and thinkers to address the urgent questions of our time. As the flagship museum of Miami Dade College, MOAD strives to be a catalyst for action and a place that empowers people to remake their city. The Museum follows the College’s lead in operating across Miami with its Museum Without Boundaries initiative, which takes place in city neighborhoods and invites everyone to be a part of the conversation.
WHAT: Archivo Vivo lecture-performance by Mapa Teatro
WHEN: Saturday, Nov. 2 at 7 p.m.
WHERE: MDC Live Arts Lab, Bldg. 1, 300 NE 2nd Avenue
Museum Hours: Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday 1-6 p.m., Thursday 10-8 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.