Dora García on Metafiction, Current Events, and Two Recent Projects in Miami

In this video, the Spanish artist Dora García speaks about her art and several of her recent works. The discussion includes two projects presented in 2020 by the Museum of Art and Design at Miami Dade College: "Rezos/Prayers Miami" and "I Remember Miami." García positions these specially commissioned works in the context of her artistic practice, literature, and current events.

"Rezos/Prayers Miami" preserves a moment in the life of the place we call home. García sent out ten local residents to describe everything they saw or heard in 45-minute narrations, recorded as audio tracks—what the artist has called “incessant description, recited like a prayer.” "Rezos/Prayers" makes personal and specific experiences into collective and universal invocations. Experience the work in its entirety at the artist’s website: http://doragarcia.org/rezos/miami/.

The participatory work "I Remember Miami," commissioned by MOAD in collaboration with the Miami Book Fair, invites the public to come together in a virtual collective space of memory and connection to celebrate the experience of living in our city. Produced by the people of Miami themselves, this work records intimate memories of a vital place temporarily stilled. While we remain in our homes, "I Remember Miami" asks us to recall small, specific details of spaces in the city that have made lasting impressions and to record ourselves walking through those spaces in our minds, documenting this unique time in Miami’s history. "I Remember Miami" represents a hopeful gesture of solidarity and togetherness at a time of individual isolation.

Submissions for "I Remember Miami" will be accepted until June 30, 2020. Go to http://mdcmoad.org/Iremember/ to participate. Selections will be posted on MOAD and the Miami Book Fair’s Facebook and Instagram accounts. When complete, the archive will be accessible on the websites of the museum (http://mdcmoad.org/), the Miami Book Fair (https://www.miamibookfair.com/), and the artist (http://doragarcia.org/).

Born in 1965 in Valladolid, Spain, Dora García studied at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. She uses a range of media including performance, video, text, and installation in her practice to investigate the conditions that shape the encounter between the artist, the artwork, and the viewer. García’s works often involve staging unscripted scenarios that elicit doubt as to the fictional or spontaneous nature of a given situation. They predetermine set rules of engagement or utilize recording devices to frame both conscious and unconscious forms of spectator participation. The artist has exhibited around the world and her work was presented at the Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid, in 2018; Documenta in 2012; the São Paulo Biennial in 2010; and Münster Sculpture Projects in 2007. She represented Spain in the 2011 Venice Bienale.

Commissioned by MOAD, "Dora García: Rezos/Prayers Miami" and "I Remember Miami" are curated by Rina Carvajal as part of the series "A City of the People. It is" made possible by the generous support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners; and the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture.

This video is produced, directed, and edited by Konstantia Kontaxis for MOAD.