Faena Art's Biennale of Moving Images Brings Global Culture to Miami Beach

Clad in his trademark all-white garb, with a matching bandanna and Panama hat, Alan Faena is the namesake of the city’s most upscale hotel, Faena Hotel Miami Beach. With his wife and close collaborator Ximena Caminos, he launched the Faena District to house the North American operations of Faena Art during Art Basel Miami Beach in December 2016. Their most recent project hosted the 15th Biennale of Moving Images, an “un-curated” exhibition comprising video, installation, and performance pieces.

Originally created for the Centre d’Art Contemporain Geneve, the show traveled from Switzerland to the sands of Miami Beach for a festive local debut. Of the 28 pieces in the show, seven were selected for venues at Faena Bazaar and Park. Located in vacant storefronts, unused garages, and courtyards, the pieces appropriate unconventional spaces for installations. The remaining batch of films will be shown at special screenings at the hotel and bazaar through the end of the month. All are free and open to the public.
“I like to say that we [Faena Art] are operate with an element of surprise, like Jenny Holzer does in the public domain,”,” Caminos quipped at the show’s opening, referencing the installation artist known for light projections and LED signs. “We like to to occupy unexpected places that provide new context for an artwork's message.”

Unlike most established festivals, the Biennale of Moving Images shows commissioned pieces produced with no specific curatorial theme. In Red Gold, Karimah Ashadu presents a short, experimental narrative about the economic and social context of palm oil production in Nigeria. For the British filmmaker, the piece is not only a meditation on her Nigerian roots but also both a celebration and an indictment of the country’s working-class values and political realties. Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz’s Silent takes a more tongue-in-cheek approach to gender. The film opens with a reinterpretation of John Cage’s 1952 score "4'33"," for which performers are instructed not to play their instruments for the duration of the piece.

Navigating the Biennale’s crowded opening was a who’s who of the South Florida art world. Iranian-American photographer Iran Issa-Khan, collector Kathryn Mikesell, and others mixed and mingled as they traversed the Faena Bazaar and Park’s narrow corridors and stairways to view the various installations in their entirety.

The show stands out in Miami's art landscape as a glittery foreign import. The diverse roster of films pushes the boundaries of experimental films, and the installations bring a new way of experiencing and curating art. For Faena, the show constitutes a reintroduction to the local art world after the venue's highly publicized debut last December.

The Biennale’s opening is just the district’s first in a crowded programming schedule that includes large-scale installations, sculptures, performances, and much more. But for a split second on that breezy Miami Beach evening, it seemed the Alan Faena’s dream of building a bridge between North and South America was slowly beginning to take shape.

Biennale of Moving Images Screening Schedule

Thursday, April 20
Kerry Tribe, Exquisite Corpse, 2016, 51 min. Courtesy of the artist and 1301PE, Los Angeles.
7 p.m. at Pérez Art Museum Miami, 1103 Biscayne Blvd., Miami.

Friday, April 21
Yuri Ancarani, The Challenge, 2016, 67 min. Courtesy of the artist. Presented by Juan Barquin, New Times writer and film critic.
8 p.m. at the Faena Bazaar Patio, 3400 Collins Ave., Miami Beach.

Saturday, April 22
Massimo D’Anolfi and Martina Parenti, L’Infinita Fabbrica del Duomo, 2016, 121 min. Courtesy of the artist. Presented by Alastair Gordon, Contributor Editor for Architecture and Design at Wall Street Journal.
7 p.m. at the Faena Hotel Screening Room, 3201 Collins Ave., Miami Beach.

Sunday, April 23
Jillian Mayer, You’ll Be Okay, 2014, 4-min loop. Courtesy of the artist.
Paris Kain, Love. Serve. Remember, 2016, 4 min. Courtesy of the artist.
Jenna Hasse, Soltar, 2016, 24 min. Courtesy of the artist and Louise Productions.
Bertille Bak, Usine à Divertissement (Entertainment Factory), 2016, 20 min. Courtesy of the artist and Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève.
Alessio di Zio, Genesee, 14 min., and Sioux Rapids, 15 min. Courtesy of the artist.
8 p.m. at the Faena Bazaar Patio, 3400 Collins Ave., Miami Beach.

Friday, April 28
Boris Mitic, Once Upon a Nothing, 2016, 60 min. Courtesy of the artist.
7 p.m. at the Faena Hotel Screening Room, 3201 Collins Ave., Miami Beach.

Yuri Ancarani, The Challenge, 2016, 67 min. Courtesy of the artist.
8:30 p.m. at the Faena Hotel Screening Room, 3201 Collins Ave., Miami Beach.

Saturday, April 29
Bodil Furu, Mangeurs de Cuivre, 2016, 81 min. Courtesy of the artist.
7 p.m. at the Faena Hotel Screening Room, 3201 Collins Ave., Miami Beach.

Sunday, April 30
Kerry Tribe, Exquisite Corpse, 2016, 51 min. Courtesy of the artist and 1301PE, Los Angeles. Featuring Kerry Tribe in conversation with Franklin Sirmans, director of Pérez Art Museum Miami; and Ximena Caminos, artistic director and chair of Faena Art.
8 p.m. at the Faena Bazaar Patio, 3400 Collins Ave., Miami Beach.

All events are free and open to the public. RSVP at faenaart.org.