CORTADA'S ENGAGED ART PRACTICE ON PERMANENT DISPLAY
PINECREST GARDENS LAUNCHES CORTADA'S ECO-ART COLONNADE
On July 7, 2021, the Village of Pinecrest will dedicate Xavier Cortada’s Eco-art Colonnade, an interactive 200-foot long eco-art exhibition that will be on permanent display at Pinecrest Gardens. The Eco-art Colonnade showcases a collection of Cortada’s most important projects so visitors can learn about critical environmental issues impacting South Florida, participate in a range of ongoing eco-art initiatives, and ultimately discover how they can help to protect people and the planet.
“We are so honored to house this incredible artist in our gardens and cultural arts park,” said Alana Perez, Director of Pinecrest Gardens. “This innovative, interactive living exhibition is a true gift to our community and to those in the future who will benefit from the eco-actions it will generate.”
LIVING EXHIBITION AIMS TO GROW ECO-EMISSARIES
The Eco-art Colonnade will serve as a platform for community members, families, and children to have conversations about and commit to protecting Florida’s natural beauty. Cortada asks visitors to participate in his featured eco-art projects and become protagonists in the fight against global climate change, rising seas, and environmental degradation:
NATIVE FLAGS
Help rebuild our native tree canopy
SEAHORSE SOCIETY
Protect Biscayne Bay
ENDANGERED WORLD
Adopt an endangered animal
FLORIDA IS... NATURE
Depict Florida’s natural beauty
FLOWER FORCE
Plant a native wildflower garden
UNDERWATER HOA
Mark your home’s elevation above sea-level
PLAN(T)
Plant a salt-tolerant native tree
LETTERS TO THE FUTURE
Write a letter to someone in the future
RECLAMATION PROJECT
Reclaim land for nature
ART HISTORIAN’S PERSPECTIVE: “What a delight it is to learn of the EcoArt Colonnade in Miami’s Pinecrest Gardens Park honoring the outstanding work of Xavier Cortada, one of the first artists in South Florida to engage ecological art as a practice,” said art historian Mary Jo Aagerstoun, Ph.D, art historian and founder of Artists for Climate Action.
“[I] believe Cortada’s EcoArt continuum will soon outgrow the 200 feet that the upcoming Colonnade will embrace. And so it should. We need Cortada to keep expanding his practice, and many more artists following his lead in thinking creatively about how to “stay with the trouble,” in damaged landscapes…”
THE NEW DIGITAL CORRIDOR
Being unveiled in conjunction with the Eco-art Colonnade is Pinecrest Gardens’ new Digital Corridor, a centralized hub designed to help visitors experience Cortada’s artwork across the gardens, feature artwork that Cortada has created throughout the community, and provide an online gallery of Cortada’s limited-edition prints available in the garden’s Hibiscus Gallery.
MORE ART AT THE GARDENS
The Eco-art Colonnade will join Cortada’s other public art gems in the garden, including Pinecrest Mangrove Forest (Miami’s first urban mangrove forest), Diatom Court (commemorating FCE LTER scientists who study the Everglades) and the Longitudinal Installation (a replica of the work the artist installed at the South Pole in 2007 to raise awareness of global climate change).
