Miami-Dade County’s pioneer eco-artist and inaugural artist-in-residence, Xavier Cortada, will celebrate Earth Day 2023 at the University of Miami’s Cosford Cinema by working with his team at the Xavier Cortada Foundation to engage guests in a series of thought-provoking and solutions-oriented art projects that explore our deep interconnectedness with the rest of the planet.
Cortada will invite everyone in attendance to participate in The Underwater, a countywide campaign that’s catalyzing action on sea level rise through elevation-driven public art installations. After receiving their personalized Elevation Marker, participants will have the opportunity to join Cortada in the Longitudinal Installation, a ritual aimed at building empathy and connection that he performed at both of the Earth’s poles. Inside the theater, Cortada will provide a preview exhibition of Underwater Florida, hand-painted Elevation Markers that he created at 54 coastal city halls to expose their vulnerability to rising seas, and share reflections on how we can mobilize communities around the climate crisis by tapping into our own creativity.
The program will close with DO NOT OPEN, a project asking the audience to write a letter to someone in 2123 that will be sealed and stored in the University of Miami’s archives for 100 years.