2021 PÉREZ ART MUSEUM MIAMI

Installation views, and interaction with the public, The Swaying Motion on the Bank of The River Falls
Solo show, Pérez Art Museum Miami
Curated by Jennifer Inacio
May 20, 2021 – Spring 2022

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Wall text by Jennifer Inacio: Felipe Mujica: The Swaying Motion on the Bank of the River Falls

Bridging art, architecture, design, and social engagement, Felipe Mujica (b. 1974, Santiago, Chile) creates fabric panels featuring geometric designs that function as sculptural objects and spatial interventions. This material has been Mujica’s primary medium for 15 years, allowing him to create opportunities for collaboration with other artists and communities by interweaving his designs with their technical skills.

The Swaying Motion on the Bank of the River Falls is Mujica’s first solo museum presentation in the United States. Newly commissioned by Pérez Art Museum Miami, the project consists of 24 fabric panels displayed in this gallery as well as outdoors near the museum’s main entrance and in the lobby. Produced in collaboration with Miccosukee artisan Khadijah Cypress, the works presented here combine Mujica’s geometric designs with traditional Miccosukee patterns. The abstracted imagery that comprises the patchwork in the panels references natural elements prominent in the community’s environment—the Florida Everglades—such as rain, fire, lightning, birds, and turtles. Merging individual and collective labor, as well as contemporary and traditional approaches to artistic production, the exhibition builds dialogues between different contexts while fostering connections and relationships with Native American communities of South Florida. Mujica creates moments of engagement, in which visitors can become collaborators, as well, either by directly interacting with the layout of the panels hung horizontally or simply by examining how the air circulation created by their bodies slowly shifts the works hung in the center of the space, offering an ever-changing experience.

Felipe Mujica: The Swaying Motion on the Bank of the River Falls is organized by PAMM Associate Curator Jennifer Inacio. The exhibition is presented with generous support from Karen H. Bechtel and William M. Osborne.

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