Where the Oceans Meet

The group exhibition “Where the Oceans Meet“, housed at the Museum of Art and Design at Miami Dade College, reflects on the ambiguous opposition between globalisation and physical and cultural borders experienced in current days.
“Where the Oceans Meet” collects archival material by two key figures in studying and rethinking borders: the Cuban painter, scholar, and ethnographer Lydia Cabrera (1899–1991) and the Martinican philosopher, poet, and literary critic Édouard Glissant (1928–2011). While Cabrera mainly dealt with the culture of Afro-Cubans communities with an impartial approach, Glissant similarly explored the injustices endured by the Caribbean populations over the years. He further investigated how different cultures contaminate each other when they meet.
Assuming their researches as a starting point, a selection of forty prominent international artists reviews modern days’ related compelling issues, such as diaspora, race, gender, memory, history, ritual, violence, and hospitality.  On view works by Etel Adnan, Kader Attia, Belkis Ayón, Yto Barrada, Daniel Boyd, Tania Bruguera, Sebastián Calfuqueo Aliste, and many more.

Within the exhibition, artists Navild Acosta and Fannie Sosa present the immersive installation “Black Power Naps/Siestas Negras“.
Based on scientific studies denouncing a “sleep gap” between white and black people to the detriment of the latter, the installation consists of multiple embellished beds. There, visitors are invited to spend some quiet time relaxing to the sound of restorative music. The intervention is intended as an “energetic compensation” for those who were historically deprived of idleness and laziness.