Miami Art Museum will present an interactive performance titled “A Reconciliation (Emerald City)” by Bert Rodriguez in the MAM Auditorium on Sept. 2nd. 2010, from 6-9:00PM.Bert’s desire to “just talk with all the people I miss back home, all at once”, combined with the discovery that Seattle’s nickname “The Emerald City”, also the name of “The Great City of OZ” in the fictional books and films, became the point of departure for creating this performative installation which will consist of a darkened, haze and fog filled auditorium with the only light coming from a nearly 20ft tall live projection of Rodriguez’s face from his studio in Seattle, WA.  During the event, the public will be invited to ask questions, make wishes, vent frustrations and and, converse with Bert in real time.  The only interaction being the invisible, anonymous voices from participants speaking to him through a microphone placed in the center of the space.

In a similar gesture to some of his previous work like IN THE BEGINNING… at the Whitney Museum of American Art and WHERE YOU END AND I BEGIN for the Frieze Foundation in London, Bert offers himself up as the sovereign and the subject of the work, creating a situation where he becomes a catalyst in service of the viewer’s investigation into their assumptions about their own relationships and experiences and how the navigate through them.

Bert Rodriguez (b. 1975 Miami, FL) has exhibited and received commissions at institutions all over the world. Most recently, THE MAN CALLED BERT; Annarumma Gallery, Naples, Italy (2010) and IʼLL CROSS THAT BRIDGE WHEN I GET TO IT; Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami (2010). Other recent exhibitions include IN YOUR OWN IMAGE: THE BEST OF BERT RODRIGUEZ VOL. I; Bass Museum of Art in Miami Beach, FL. (2009), WHERE YOU END AND I BEGIN; Frieze Art Fair, London (2008),IN THE BEGINNING…; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2008), and A WALL I BUILT WITH MY FATHER / A MEAL I MADE WITH MY MOTHER; Le Plateau, FRAC Ile de France, Paris (2008).

MAM Auditorium
Sept. 2nd. 2010
6-9:00PM

Miami Art Museum is located at
101 West Flagler Street
Miami, Florida, 33130
in the Philip Johnson-designed Miami-Dade Cultural Center.