If you make your way to Faena Beach this December, you may just be lucky enough to come across a monumental new planetary installation. For this year’s Miami Art Week, Faena Art is presenting A Lore Supreme by Christopher Joshua Benton, a 44-foot-wide kinetic sculpture that reimagines the disco ball as a glowing, spinning globe.
Free and open to the public from December 1 through 6, Benton’s first major U.S. installation will be constructed from over 7,000 mirrored facets that move with the wind and reflect the surrounding ocean, sky and spectators. It’ll tower 27 feet into the sky and be partially embedded in the sand.
Serving as a sculpture and public gathering space all at once, the sphere reflects the countries and cultures — particularly across Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America — that have shaped Miami’s unique cultural and musical landscape. Embedded speakers will broadcast sound work developed by local voices, allowing visitors to walk around and experience different fragments of conversation and music.
“Miami is one of those places where the city itself feels like a dance floor, a shared space where different cultures and communities come together,” Benton said in a statement.
“I practiced some salsa at a pirate radio station, embodied the orishas at a Cuban folkloric dance class, went crate digging with local DJs, sang in a community choir, dived into local archives, played with drum machines at a recording studio, and learned the güiro over a Cuban sandwich at an iconic eatery in Little Havana. And of course, there was so much dancing!”
The sand becomes the dance floor
The “mirrored Earth” will be activated daily by Island Funk House, an ambitious artist-curated program of music and movement. Plans include morning wellness activities, afternoon sound documentary and live performances as the sun sets.
You can expect pairings of local and international talent, with a participating lineup that includes Major Lazer, Richie Hell, DJ Le Spam, DJ Pressure Point and PaperWater. Additional performers have yet to be announced.
Other Faena Art installations this Miami Art Week
While Benton’s A Lore Supreme resides on the beach, programming will extend into the Faena Cathedral. Multidisciplinary Italian artist Marinella Senatore will debut An Expanded Baroque Crown, a temporary architecture of light (luminaria) rooted in the traditions of public celebration in Southern Italy. Expanding the form of a Baroque crown, it invites visitors to enter, move through and make their own.
Additionally, the City of Miami Beach’s No Vacancy will feature Kevin Arrow’s site-responsive installation, The Magic Is You!, at Casa Faena. The work draws from decades of 35mm slides collected throughout South Florida.
Faena Art installations will be on view to the public daily from noon to 9 p.m., December 1 to 6. You can learn more on their website.
