The interactive art campaign “The Underwater” sparks climate engagement with a site-specific installation, participatory art activity, and discussions.

PRESS RELEASE

March 11, 2024

Miami-Dade County artist-in-residence Xavier Cortada engages the public with “The Underwater”, a socially engaged art project debuting at The Phase Gallery in Moonlighter FabLab Miami Beach during The Aspen Ideas Climate Summit and will remain on view through May 31st, 2024. This community-based initiative calls attention to the climate crisis through site-specific yard signs that creatively reveal South Florida’s vulnerability to rising seas, spark climate conversations, and catalyze civic engagement.

Visitors of The Underwater exhibit are introduced to the county-wide initiative, then encouraged to engage in the participatory art project by discovering the elevation of their home, and drawing that number on a blank yard sign. Once residents place these elevation marked signs in their front yard, curiosity from neighbors, friends, and family is instantly sparked as the meaning of the number is unknown to anyone not familiar with the project.​ 

“By mapping the impending crisis, I make the invisible visible. Block by block, house by house, neighbor by neighbor, I want to make the future impact of sea level rise something impossible to ignore. “I hope to engage my neighbors as problem solvers who will learn and work together now to better prepare themselves and their heirs for the chaos to come.”

• XAVIER CORTADA​

“I am proud to see our very own Miami-Dade artist-in-residence Xavier Cortada’s interactive art campaign front and center during the Aspen Ideas Climate Summit,” stated Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava. “This critical and important work brings attention to the impacts of climate change in our community. By engaging the public, his artwork provides new perspectives, challenging us all to come together for creative solutions.”

In 2022 Miami-Dade County Mayor Levine Cava named Xavier Cortada as the inaugural Miami-Dade County artist-in-residence. Cortada’s practice is focused on the environment, and challenges viewers to consider their impact on the world’s natural resources, as well as their personal role to play in environmental protection. A former Chairman of the Miami-Dade County Cultural Affairs Council, he was pivotal in the creation of the Arts Resilient 305 initiative to increase awareness about the impact of climate change and the importance of resiliency and environmental sustainability, established and managed by the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs. The Knight Foundation awarded a $100,000 grant to the Xavier Cortada Foundation to present this large-scale participatory art project in collaboration with Miami-Dade County and other co-sponsors.

“When visitors first walk in and see the wave of elevation signs created by Miami Beach students on display – they will truly understand the power of this project. By creating a platform for social engagement, using technology to deliver critical information to the public, and encouraging individuals to create art that further informs their neighbors about climate change – the impact quickly grows. This is the potential of participatory art and science in action. We are proud to host Xavier Cortada’s Underwater exhibit and serve as a site for the distribution of the elevation signs as it aligns with our mission of empowering people to make a difference in their community through making and technology.” – Tom Pupo, Executive Director of Moonlighter FabLab.

About Phase Gallery at Moonlighter FabLab

PHASE Gallery features work that blends technology, social impact, and art in new innovative mediums. Creators that work in the realms of both bits and atoms – the Digital and Physical. PHASE Gallery celebrates the process and technical craft of artists, designers, and engineers creating on the cutting edge and making an impact in their communities.

Moonlighter FabLab is a 501(c)3 non-profit S.T.E.A.M. Learning Center and Fabrication Laboratory in partnership with The City of Miami Beach, Florida dedicated to empowering makers of all ages and abilities with the skills, tools, and opportunities to shape a better future. 

MEDIA CONTACT:

Tom Pupo

Moonlighter FabLab

1661 Pennsylvania Avenue

Miami Beach, Fl. 33139

305-699-2041

admin@moonlighterfablab.org