Clearing
Nadir Souirgi
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WHEN: Tuesday April 19th, 7:30AM-9AM
WHERE: The Underline at the Brickell Metrorail Station Participants should arrive promptly at 7:30AM for a coffee and light snack reception, with the walk beginning at 7:45AM.
MEETING POINT: In front of the Brickell Station across from the Publix
Join artist and naturalist Nadir Souirgi in an interpretive nature walk on The Underline. Clearing is a somatic exercise conceptualizing land and landscape, an invitation to think about space and conservation structurally. In this context, birdwatching becomes a platform to explore ideas of conservation less rooted in field identification and hard facts, but as a practice to develop a more complete awareness of the natural world humans share space with. When thinking about endangered species and declining populations, it's important to contextualize why this is happening, expanding awareness into oneself and the space we inhabit. We will observe nature not just as a spectator, but locate ourselves in a larger community - allowing sensorial experience to connect with political structures, recontextualizing space to include human and non human. Clearing is part of the expanded practice of artist Nadir Souirgi, who’s painting exhibition Metonym is currently on display at the Bas Fisher Invitational (BFI) pop up in Miami’s Design District, in collaboration with Bridge Initiative. The exhibition is part of Waterproof, a series of site-specific artists’ projects presented by BFI and Bridge Initiative developed in direct response to the environmental issues facing South Florida, planned through 2022. Each project presents an opportunity for outreach, engagement, and action.
About the Artist Raised in New York City and Miami, Nadir Souirgi was born to Haitian and Moroccan immigrant parents. His work examines conditions of identity and the earth crisis. Nadir is an MFA painting candidate at the Yale School of Art. He lives and works in NYC. Nadir learned at an early age that nature is where you see it. This was due in large part to the influence and generosity of Oscar Ruiz, a close family friend who was an avid birder and amateur naturalist himself. According to Nadir, “Oscar is probably why I became a teacher. He didn’t just teach me about the natural world, he taught me to love it, and that it also has to be taught.” And so he teaches: as an elementary school art teacher in East Harlem, through The Harlem County Bird Club nature study and bird program he created at his school, and now with NYC Audubon.
BFI
Contact: info@basfisherinvitational.com
www.basfisherinvitational.com
Bas Fisher Invitational (BFI) is an artist-run presenting organization dedicated to creativity, experimentation, and discourse in contemporary art. BFI creates a bridge between Miami and the international art world by curating programs featuring both local and global artists at sites throughout Miami-Dade County, and in collaboration with national and international partnering organizations.
Friends of The Underline's mission is to deliver and activate a 120-acre, world-class linear park spanning 10-miles below Miami’s Metrorail that will transform regional mobility and celebrate diversity, culture and lifelong learning. Through innovative urban trails and creative programming, we are connecting people to their environment and each other to create a safe, healthy, equitable, and sustainable community. For more information visit theunderline.org.
Special thanks to The Underline and the Cornelia T. Bailey Foundation
This exhibition is a part of WATERPROOF, a series of site-specific artists’ projects presented by BFI and Bridge Initiative developed in direct response to the environmental issues facing South Florida, planned through 2022. Each project presents an opportunity for outreach, engagement, and action. This is part of BFI’s program WEIRD MIAMI, which offers a behind the scenes look at the city and its artistic offerings with our popular, artist-led tours, which introduce locals, as well as tourists, to lesser-known places and cultural projects. BFI invites artists to create tours that reflect their relationship with the city as a kind of expanded studio visit.
