Miami’s next big art hotspot is off to a promising start. A fabulous beach-side cookout yesterday welcomed art world power players to Faena Miami Beach, the planned six-block arts district from artsy Argentinian developer Alan Faena.
Eagerly awaiting the opening of Faena Forum—the Ximena Caminos-led, Rem Koolhaas-designed art space that will serve as the district’s centerpiece (see “What Is the Latest Miami Art Hotspot?“)—guests flocked to Faena Collaboratory for food, drinks, art, and a glimpse of what promises to be a bright future for the nascent arts district. At various events throughout the week, Baz Luhrmann Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Tommy Hilfiger, Larry Gagosian, Jeffrey Deitch, Simon de Pury, Donald and Mera Rubell, Gavin Brown, and Beth Rudin deWoody all stopped by to take a peak.
Located next to the Faena House, a luxury Foster + Partners-designed oceanfront condo that will be completed next year, Faena Collaboratory displayed plans for the Faena Forum and the district’s other planned properties, in a manner reminiscent of a Venice Architecture Biennale pavilion. Other upcoming projects for the district include Faena Hotel Miami Beach, designed in collaboration with Luhrmann and his wife, Catherine Martin.
A gorgeous hanging art installation by Gonzalo Fuenmayor hung overhead on Thursday as guests enjoyed a bountiful Argentine asado lunch, huge portions of meat cooked over on open flame, impaled on what appeared to be some sort of medieval torture device. The chef, Francis Mallmann, was flown in from Argentina just for the event, and translators were on hand to help the cooks interact with guests on the buffet line. Food was served on dishes designed by Dutch design-collective Studio Job and produced by Bernardaud, the team behind Jeff Koons’s Split-Rocker plates.
Another permanent sculpture by Studio Job accompanies Fuenmayor’s installation. Even the complex’s temporary construction walls are works of art, also designed by the Antwerp-based studio. And earlier in the week, Rolls-Royce projected a video piece, The Ocean Within, by Brazilian-German artist Janaina Tschäpe, onto building walls in the Faena district.
If you’re kicking yourself for missing one of the best events of Miami art week, you’re not quite out of luck. Mallmann will be back to serve up his Argentinian specialties at lunches held both today and tomorrow, provided you can wrangle an invitation. Advice for gate-crashers: show up in a Rolls-Royce, and you’ll be fine.
Go to artnet News’s Art Basel in Miami page for the latest coverage, including:
“Art Basel in Miami Beach 2014 is a Rip-Roaring Success”
“What To Buy? See These Top 10 Booths at Art Basel in Miami Beach”