Performance art (or internationally-known simply as Performance) is quickly becoming a visual arts medium vitally important to the cultural landscape in Miami. There are crescendoes of performance artists (including those based in Miami) winning statewide and national grants, as well as coveted spots in international visual arts residency programs.
With that in mind, Edge Zones Projects (helmed by Charo Oquet) hosts its second Miami Performance International Festival presenting avant-garde live and recorded works made by artists from Argentina, Austria, Cuba, France, Portugal, Spain, the UK and the US. Various projects will be spread between the Miami Beach Botanical Gardens site (across from the Miami Beach Convention Center) and within the Design District, itself, at Edge Zones' Miami Avenue home base.
Notable Miami-based artists who will be participating include Bhakti Baxter (whose work is currently on view at the Miami Art Museum's New Work 2013 show), Catalina Jaramillo (recipient of the 2013 Florida Cultural Consortium grant), David Brieske, Charo Oquet (herself), and David Rohn (local performance pioneer well-known for his colorful habitations of global stereotypes, often a fixture at the SCOPE Art Fair).
The Miami Performance International Festival is an important fixture on the local visual arts calendar as the community seeks more permanent and widespread recognition for its home-grown efforts throughout the contemporary art world. Highly capable and well-trained artists are proving to the blow-through winter crowds of Art Basel Miami Beach that this vital medium is not only alive, but well here in the Magic City.
The Miami Performance International Festival runs from June 1st through the 30th that will be accompanied by public screenings, talks and workshops. Performances will take place in a range of locations between the Miami Beach Botanical Gardens and Edge Zones Projects (3900 North Miami Avenue, Miami) in the Miami Design District. Principal support for the Miami Performance International Festival is given by The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Miami Design District, Miami-Dade County-Cultural Affairs Council, Florida State Cultural Affairs Council, Miami Beach Cultural Affairs Council and The Miami Beach Botanical Gardens.
