Building off of her wildly successful installation at this year’s Salone del Mobile, artist Es Devlin is bringing a collection of installations to Miami Art Week. Three site-specific installations that explore the concept of libraries and learning will be showcased in the city in tribute to the 10th anniversary of the local non-profit Faena Art.
Devlin’s Library of Us is a kinetic sculpture that will sit on the beach. This luminous, rotating library, filled with 2,500 books, is a tribute to the literature that has influenced Devlin’s philosophy, life, and artistic practice. As it slowly moves, visitors will be invited inside, in a similar fashion to the artist’s Library of Light earlier this year in Milan.
Each day, Devlin will set a reading table with these influential texts and invite readers to sit on stools, some static and some rotating with the exhibition, to peruse her annotated books. Within the ring of slowly rotating stools, which move with the sculpture, visitors will find themselves constantly encountering new texts and new friends across the table in a metaphor for learning and community.
This collection extends indoors at the Faena Cathedral, with a site-specific installation called Reading Room. In addition, the Faena Project Room will host an intimate look at Devlin’s creative process through small, layered drawings and glass works, giving a fuller picture of her oeuvre.
“I have always experienced libraries as silent, intensely vibrant places where minds and imaginations soar, while clutched like kites by their seated bodies,” shares the artist. “I sense the synaptic connections being forged, the resonances and associations at play within the minds of a temporary community of readers. This installation seeks to express the vitality of the library through a series of encounters between viewers revolving to meet one another through language around a circular collective reading table.”
On view from December 2 to December 7, Devlin’s pieces are sure to be a highlight of Miami Art Week. My Modern Met will be on the scene, reporting directly from Miami about all of the exceptional work on view, including Library of Us.
Es Devlin is presenting a trio of works at Miami Art Week, including a large kinetic sculpture on the beach.
