Labyrinth of Glances Photo and Video Exhibition Comes to the Freedom Tower
Miami, February 6, 2009 - Labyrinth of Glances is a provocative photo and video exhibition that will take place at the Freedom Tower at Miami Dade College (MDC) from Feb. 5 through March 5, 2009. The project of the MDC Art Gallery System and Centro Cultural Español in Miami centers on immigration today and its many faces.
It’s a middle-class Colombia woman, driven into exile by drug conflicts. A Cuban man who bears the scars of jail time served for trying to flee to Miami. It’s hundreds of Brazilians of mixed ethnicities, body types and attitudes who’ve come to America to realize their dreams.
The fact that this exhibition is at the Freedom Tower is especially compelling since the iconic building and National Historic Landmark served as a refugee assistance center in the 1960s and 1970s and many consider it the Ellis Island of the South.
The exhibition is part of three moving shows that are traveling for three years throughout 20 countries in Europe and the Americas showing images of artist who have concentrated on documentary photography in Latin America, Spain and Portugal. The idea of the project is not only related to the presentation of the exhibitions but to provide conferences, panels and workshops.
Labyrinth of Glances aims to humanize the issue of immigration by taking it out of the realm of policy debate and putting it in crowded city streets, remote rural enclaves and individual family homes. Perhaps this is nowhere clearer than in the photos and video assembled by the Cia de Foto collective of Brazil. These intimate portraits of some of the 1,680 immigrant families from throughout Brazil clustered in a formerly abandoned, 29-story apartment tower block in the gigantic metropolis of São Paulo form a vision of a self-contained world that could stand in for all humankind. Part of Cia de Foto collective of Brazil will be experienced in the workshops provided by these photographers during the exhibition at the Freedom Tower.
Labyrinth of Glances is also aimed at building a dialog on contemporary Latin America involving photographers, intellectuals and critics who have thoughts and ideas on the theme; moving away from the existing stereotypes placed on art in Ibero-America. The exhibition explores new creative approaches supported by consistent visual research projects.
This special exhibition helps kick-off Miami’s “Month of Photography” as an initiative of MDC to promote photography as a collective tool for expression and communication. The Freedom Tower at Miami Dade College is quickly being recognized as the region’s best and most important gallery space. In the short time the college has owned the National Historic Landmark, thanks to a generous donation from Pedro Martin and family, the Tower has been the site of exhibitions showcasing the works of Salvador Dali, Leonardo da Vinci, Francisco de Goya, and other masters.
Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday from noon until 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, please call the MDC Art Gallery System at 305-237-7186 or email galleries@mdc.edu.
- WHAT: Labyrinth of Glances
- WHEN: Thursday, Feb. 5, 6:00 PM - Thursday, Mar. 5, 7:00 PM
- WHERE: Freedom Tower at Miami Dade College, 600 Biscayne Blvd.
Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday from noon until 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, please call the Art Gallery System at 305-237-7186 or email galleries@mdc.edu.