Bridge Deconstruction is a sustained creative investigation undertaken by the Department of Reflection for The Wolfsonian-FIU. The research-based, and context and site-specific collaborative endeavor uses bridges and related infrastructure as vectors for individual and communal ideation, storytelling, and creative expression. Bridge Deconstruction takes direct inspiration from The Wolfsonian-FIU’s collection, particularly its Bridge Tender House (aka the Josephine Baker Pavilion), which is seen as a launchpad from which a public installation and collaborative programming will take place.
Bridge Deconstruction will be conducted in three phases over the course of 2023.
Phase I / Special Commission on Bridges / January 9 – April 24, 2023
The Special Commission on Bridges began January 9, 2023 within FIU’s History Department with core commission members Special Historical Officers Philip Cardella, Riley Ford, Juan Lopez, and Susana Perez, and led by DoR Director misael soto with special counsel from Phd. Rebecca Friedman, Jacek Kolasinski, Silvia Barisione, and Sue Welch (West Palm Beach County Bridge Tender).
Using The Wolfsonian-FIU collection’s bridge tender house as a vector from which to work through, now known as the Josephine Baker Pavilion, and starting at the same geographical point where the bridge tender house was originally located at NW 27th Avenue (aka Unity Boulevard) and the Miami River, and connecting it to where it currently resides, in front of The Wolfsonian-FIU museum building on Washington Avenue and 10th Street in Miami Beach… together over the course of four months the group investigated infrastructure, bridges, and related political, social, and ethnographic phenomena.
Phase II / Public Input / June 23 – October 31, 2023
How can you be a part of our next major deconstructive infrastructure project? Bridge Deconstruction’s Public Input phase is your chance! Learn more about how you can be a part of Bridge Deconstruction’s Public Input Phase here.
Phase II, Public Input, included:
Town Hall: Public Input Kickoff
June 23, 2023
Wolfsonian-FIU, Miami Beach
The Public Input phase of Bridge Deconstruction kicked off with a participatory Town Hall meeting at The Wolfsonian-FIU. Free and open to the public, the gathering was led by DoR Director misael soto. Attendees participated in a group workshop and learned about our Special Commission on Bridges with presentations by our Historical Officers: Philip Cardella, Riley Ford, Juan Lopez, and Susana Perez.
Fieldwork: Tour #2
August 6, 2023
Bas Fisher Invitational, Miami
(Hi)stories overlapped in situ during this pre-construction bridge tour as we pieced together a communal speculative civil structure connecting The Wolfsonian-FIU’s Bridge Tender House (aka the Josephine Baker Pavilion) with other relevant sites around Miami-Dade County. Fieldwork: Tour #2 is part of the department’s Bridge Deconstruction, a sustained creative investigation undertaken by the Department of Reflection for The Wolfsonian-FIU. The research-based, and context and site-specific collaborative endeavor used bridges and related infrastructure as vectors for individual and communal ideation, storytelling, and creative expression.
De-Code Compliance (for Monte Castello di Vibio)
August 24, 2023
Poor Farm Living in the Play Residency, Monte Castello di Vibio, Italy
De-Code Compliance (for Monte Castello di Vibio) continued research and development begun at the start of the year in conjunction with Bridge Deconstruction in Miami. Conducted in and around the small medieval walled village in central Umbria, Italy, particular attention was given to a nearby bridge spanning the legendary Tiber River below and the bridge’s multigenerational hybrid construction. Our research culminated with a performative investigation in situ under an architectural arch feature and threshold within the town’s gallery space and the context of Poor Farm‘s “Living in the Play: Nido II” residency exhibition featuring 17 artists. Over the course of a day, DoR director misael soto used various tools, writing, and found and taken images in order to visually and conceptually layer geographies, bridges, architectural and infrastructural elements, histories, and recent thoughts and theories. misael engaged with visitors to bring in further layers and recordings of their findings were made on the walls and floor as the process unfolded.
Phase III / Bridge Deconstruction (Site) / November 3, 2023 – January 31, 2024
The Department of Reflection uses The Wolfsonian–FIU’s Bridge Tender House as the foundation for a special public installation involving community and student-submitted work inspired by bridges. Originally located at Northwest 27th Avenue on the Miami River—and now part of the museum’s collection—the streetside Art Deco architectural structure has played muse to DoR and their phased, multi-person creative investigation into infrastructure, bridges, and related political, social, and ethnographic phenomena. Titled Bridge Deconstruction, the project began in January with the Special Commission on Bridges that took place within Florida International University’s Department of History and continued with a Public Input phase, during which several open calls were put out to various local communities. The installation and series of programming is the public culmination of the year-long project.
On view as part of the installation was “Bridge Deconstruction Video Essay.” Partially a supercut using bridge sequences from nearly 40 films and television series, partially aspirational posthumanist musing, “Bridge Deconstruction Video Essay” is a linear audiovisual exercise attempting to reveal communal knowledge from depictions of bridges in popular culture. You can view “Bridge Deconstruction Video Essay” here.
Installation views:
Project associates include: Kayla Delacerda, Chris Dougnac, Loni Johnson, Jessica Mueller, Victoria Ravelo, Sterling Rook, Nicole Salcedo, Ayesha Singh, Samuel Tommie, Sue Welch, Agustina Woodgate, Armando Zamora, Donzii, The Greater Miami Bureau of Time Tourism, Bridge Deconstruction Special Historical Officers: Riley Ford, Philip Cardella, Juan Lopez, and Susanna Perez; and FIU CARTA Students: Shannon Bishop, Sandra Botros, Oriana Leon, Busra Sari, Jadayne Smith, and Valentyna Willard
Phase III, Bridge Deconstruction (Site), included:
GROUNDBREAKING CEREMONY
November 2, 2023
Bridge Tender House, The Wolfsonian-FIU
The Department of Reflection unveiled its Bridge Deconstruction Site with a groundbreaking ceremony on November 2, 2023. The launch marked the beginning of the public installation component of our year-long collaborative endeavor using bridges and related infrastructure as vectors for individual and communal ideation, storytelling, and creative expression. The bridge-inspired works of art and design by community and FIU students are centered around The Wolfsonian’s historic, street-side Bridge Tender House, DoR’s muse throughout Bridge Deconstruction. The evening featured a groundbreaking ceremony and participatory photo-op, and a performance by Samuel Tommie.
Miami Rope Bridge Workshop
November 19, 2023
The Wolfsonian-FIU
Artist Sterling Rook’s Miami Rope Bridge‘s rope-making workshops continue with a public workshops in collaboration with the Department of Reflection. Drawing from the power of collaborative building, these fabric workshops will allow for folks at almost any skill level to contribute. The final, communally-made Miami Rope Bridge will be installed at the ancient Arch Creek Park in early December, 2023. Please join us in building bridges – both real and imaginary.
(DE)CONSTRUCTION
December 1, 2023
The Wolfsonian-FIU
Bridge Deconstruction Site continued with a procession led by artist Loni Johnson and a conversation on Miami’s historical and ongoing infrastructure issues.
Honoring a century of service workers and Black culture, Johnson’s “5:31: Sundown Procession” referenced Miami Beach’s former “sundown town” laws barring African Americans from residing within the city and requiring them to cross the causeways to the mainland before nightfall. Attendees were invited to meet Johnson on the beach sand, accompanying her as she bridged past and present, guiding them from the beach sand, down 10th Street, and into The Wolfsonian, where an altar was activated. Immediately following was an interdisciplinary panel discussion, moderated by Department of Reflection director misael soto, that shed light on the intersectional ways public space is political. The panel included Transit Alliance Miami co-executive director Cathy Dos Santos, multidisciplinary South Florida Historian Malcolm Lauredo, Palm Beach bridge tender Sue Welch, and South Florida bridge engineer Andrew Barthle.
De-Code Compliance
December 8, 2023
Bridge Tender House, The Wolfsonian-FIU
The Department of Reflection’s De-Code Compliance Team (Jenna Balfe and misael soto) conducted work in and around The Wolfsonian-FIU’s Bridge Tender House as part of our Bridge Deconstruction. Over the course of an evening, the team used various tools, writing, found and taken images, and bodily investigative techniques in order to visually and conceptually layer geographies, bridges, architectural and infrastructural elements, histories, and thoughts and theories related to Bridge Deconstruction. Visitors were engaged to bring in further layers and recordings of our findings were made as the process unfolded, leading to new communal knowledge.
RIBBON CUTTING CEREMONY
January 28, 2024
Bridge Tender House, The Wolfsonian-FIU
After three months building a figurative (and at times literal) bridge with collaborators, community members, and audiences, Bridge Deconstruction Site concludes with a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony. The work is finished, and we are ready to unveil a plaque honoring the project. Local band Donzii will premiere a commissioned original musical bridge piece, Chicago-based artist Jessica Mueller with her two children will perform a new iteration of Public Weigh-In as they physically balance on each other in a demonstration of familial endurance and growth, Sterling Rook’s Miami Rope Bridge will be temporarily raised for the occasion, and Miami-based Chris Dougnak’s Underworld Construction Company will present EDEN Construction Cones, a choreographed arrangement of caution cones that will be dismantled and reorganized throughout the afternoon.
Schedule:
1-2pm: Underworld Construction Company
2-2:30: Ribbon Cutting and Plaque Unveiling
2:30-3: Performances by Jessica Mueller and Donzii
3-4: Premonition Bureau
Bridge Deconstruction Site—our public installation centered around The Wolfsonian’s historic streetside Bridge Tender House—will also be open for the afternoon, inviting you to check out the wide array of bridge-inspired works of art and design.
Bridge Deconstruction is organized by the Department of Reflection, The Wolfsonian–FIU, and The Wolfsonian Public Humanities Lab and sponsored by FIU’s Extreme Events Institute and their Commons for Justice: Race, Risk, and Resilience project funded by the Mellon Foundation.
Bridge Deconstruction is additionally supported by a WaveMaker grant from Locust Projects, Bas Fisher Invitational, and by the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners.
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