Miami Performing Arts Center
Just after dusk on Friday, December 2, Miami Performing Arts Center will present Cars & Fish - a massive outdoor digital art installation that will project giant images onto the 150-foot walls of the Center and transmit sound beams out from a flock of “hypersonic” performers roaming the Plaza for the Arts.
A celebration of Miami’s vibrant culture, Cars & Fish was commissioned by the Center and created by video artist Charles Recher and composer Gustavo Matamoros to inaugurate the Plaza during Art Basel. Marking the first large-scale public event at Miami Performing Arts Center, the evening will also feature a colorful parade produced by MPAC Physical Theater Artist-in-Residence David Clarkson.
The street theater performance will be comprised of youthful stilt walkers, giant animatronic fish, and a 35-foot “Alligator Schmalligator” gliding through the crowd expected to converge at the Plaza for the Arts between N.E. 13th and N.E. 14th Street on Biscayne Boulevard.
“Cars & Fish is one of what will be many interdisciplinary MPAC programs created to enhance and involve a wide spectrum of Miami’s cultural community,” said Justin Macdonnell, MPAC artistic director. “The event offers an opportunity for local visual artists, performers, dancers and even young children to celebrate their own city by jointly creating a spectacular work of art.”
The evening of free entertainment will begin at 6:30 p.m. with a parade of stilt walkers from “Walking Tall,” MPAC’s community outreach program of free after-school training sessions designed to develop physical theater skills, encourage creativity, and boost self-confidence in children. Dressed as “Creatures of the Swamp,” the children will lead through the Plaza for the Arts a giant 35-foot “Alligator Schmalligator” created by Wendy Wischer together with students from New World School of the Arts.
Following the parade, Recher and Matamoros will present their spectacular video-and-sound installation to be presented one time only at Miami Performing Arts Center. The facades of the theaters will be transformed into a dazzling canvas celebrating Miami’s vibrant culture, and the public watching the show will become part of Recher’s moving light sculpture. Matamoros’ synchronized interactive soundscape will be beamed throughout the Plaza via the “Hypersonic Flock,” a group of performers from Miami Contemporary Dance Company who will roam the plaza wearing high-tech sound gear that transforms them into human amplifiers. The Cars & Fish show will also include super-sized mechanical fish that “swim” through the Plaza by remote control, a 15-foot fisherman in search of an equally tall “catch,” and a roving robotic television that interacts with the crowd.
Cars & Fish is a free visual art and street performance event, suitable for all ages, produced by Miami Performing Arts Center and funded in part by the City of Miami Community Redevelopment Agency and the Miami-Dade Department of Cultural Affairs.
For more information on the event, the public may contact Miami Performing Arts Center at (305) 372-7611 or visit www.miamipac.org.
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