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In his attention-commanding performance pieces, Carlos Martiel typically exposes his body to increasingly severe tests as a commentary on social and political injustices while redefining his relationship to art.
“I find inspiration in the public sphere and the discomfort I experience from the violence we all currently live in,” Martiel explains.
The controversial 25-year-old Cuban artist has been in town the past few months creating work for a show called “Fleeting Imaginaries” at the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation in downtown Miami, where he has participated in Cannonball’s Residency Program in partnership with CIFO.
This Friday beginning at 6 p.m. at Cannonball (1035 N. Miami Ave., Miami), Martiel will unveil Sentence, a new public performance in which the artist will react to his unsettling encounters with the urban experience of the area and its destitute denizens.
For his performance, Martiel, who has become known for exploring issues of race and identity and coercive interactions between the individual and the state, will concentrate on the stifling economic conditions and disparity that take a toll on the homeless he’s encountered during his stay in Miami.
To do so he is having his nude body fully covered by a cumbersome, concrete-layered bedspread bolted to the sidewalk as long as he is physically able to endure the oppressive conditions. The work is being produced and presented by Cannonball’s Commissioning Program, which is also documenting the event in a forthcoming publication. Call 786-347-2360 or visit cannonballmiami.org.
Fri., Sept. 12, 6 p.m., 2014
