Menu Icon
Refresh Miami Logo
Search Icon
Sign Up Sign In

Miami MoCAAD to preview new VR museum during Art Week, and you’re invited. Find out how a local tech startup was involved

Nancy Dahlberg
Nancy Dahlberg
PinLinkedIn

By Nancy Dahlberg

Art has the power to ignite conversations and inspire change, and Miami Art Week brings a world of opportunities to experience that power. As the world grapples with issues of race, identity and social justice, a new documentary and AR-VR exhibition offer a unique perspective through the diverse experiences of Black artists. 

On Monday, the Miami Museum of Contemporary Art of the African Diaspora, also known as Miami MoCAAD, is set to kick off Soul Basel and Miami Art Week immersed in the digital space. Miami MoCAAD will premiere its documentary and digital exhibition titled “This Life: Black Life in the Time of Now,” which will open for the public next year.  

The “This Life” experience was curated by Dr. Anthony Bogues, the inaugural director of the Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown University. “Black life brings to the fore what the African American thinker W. E. Du Bois once called a ‘second sight,’ into this world. Each of the artists presented in this documentary and virtual exhibition engages with the world in unique ways. Their art tells us something specific and yet common about the world we live in,” said Bogues.

Through augmented and virtual reality experiences – thanks to the work of Miami tech company Xennial – participants can delve into the contemporary Black existence through the narratives of four visual artists. The free event includes a showing of the documentary, too.

The featured artists include Rosana Paulino, an internationally acclaimed feminist Brazilian artist; Renold Laurent, a Haitian artist whose dynamic and expressive paintings are rooted in imagined dialogue with his audience and between mixed media, cultural history, the present, and our collective future; Nontsikelelo Mutiti, Zimbabwean-born visual artist and educator; and Mark Thomas Gibson, a Miami-born and raised visual artist working in painting, print, ink, and watercolor. “We are also excited that the virtual art exhibit will be placed in the Microsoft portal as the art gallery for students to explore and receive inspiration for art+tech projects,” said Marilyn Holifield, co-founder of Miami MoCAAD.

Miami-based tech startup Xennial was selected in April as the digital partner by the Miami MoCAAD team to create this one-of-a-kind VR. Founded in 2018, Xennial is focused on building VR/AR platforms, content and solutions for enterprise and academic organizations. “We hope the VR Miami MoCAAD museum serves as an example for the Arts and Entertainment world of how we can use immersive technologies to provide a new medium for artists to showcase their work without the limitations of time or physical boundaries,” said Douglas Fajardo, Xennial’s founder and CEO.

What can event goers expect? “It’s basically a setup with VR headsets and we’re going to demo the VR museum for Miami MoCAAD. It’s the premiere of everything that we’re building for Miami MoCAAD,” Fajardo said, in an interview with Refresh Miami.

It’s all a preview of what’s to come next year when the virtual reality museum opens for the public. If you look at other attempts in building a virtual reality museum, they are replicas of a standard museum, Fajardo explained. “This is really the first time where we’re building a virtual reality museum that doesn’t exist physically.”

“We ideated the Miami MoCAAD museum from scratch by working with the curator, Tony Bogues, and also with Marilyn [Holifield of MoCAAD] and the artists from the African diaspora that are contributing their artwork,” said Fajardo. “You can actually go into a virtual reality museum that was created from scratch and interact with it …and  be able to have artists [avatars] explaining what inspired them to do their work.”

This digital pilot exhibit/documentary was funded by The John L. and James S. Knight Foundation and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and with the support of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor, and Board of County Commissioners.

The details

What: “This Life: Black Life in the Time of Now,” a premiere of a documentary and AR/VR museum experience.

When: 7:30-10:30 pm, Monday, Dec. 4

Where: The Urban, 1000 NW 2nd Ave, Miami

How much: Free

Tickets: RSVP here.

The artwork here is “Wall Mural” by Nonstisekelo Mutti and below, “The Boys” by Mark Thomas Gibson. The art at top of this post is “Slave Ship,” by Renold Laurentce.

READ MORE IN REFRESH MIAMI:

Nancy Dahlberg
Latest posts by Nancy Dahlberg (see all)