Events: October 4, 2023

CoBrA is an acronym for Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam, the capital cities from which the group’s founders originated. CoBrA was established on November 8, 1948 by six artists: Karel Appel (b. 1921, Amsterdam, Netherlands; d. 2006, Zürich, Switzerland), Asger Jorn (b. 1914, Jutland, Denmark; d. 1973 Aarhus, Denmark), Constant Nieuwenhuys (b. 1920, Amsterdam, Netherlands; d. 2005, Utrecht, Netherlands), Corneille (b. 1922, LieÌ€ge, Belgium; d. 2010, Auvers-sur-Oise, France), Christian Dotremont (b.1922, Terburen, Belgium; d. 1979, Buizingen, Belgium) and Joseph Noiret (b. 1927, Brussels, Belgium; d. 2012, Brussels, Belgium). These artists were brought together by their mutual disagreement with the rigorous concepts of Surrealism, the leading avant-garde movement of the day. Instead, they believed that the trauma of World War Two called for a new form of expression, inspired by pure, childlike spontaneity, “an organic, experimental collaboration that avoids all sterile, dogmatic theory.” The artists declared their shared cause by signing a manifesto titled La cause eÌtait entendue (The Matter Was Settled), penned by Christian Dotremont.

Over the course of three years, the group amassed over thirty participants, who collaboratively organized 10 issues and four supplements of an eponymous magazine and mounted multiple exhibitions throughout Europe. Through these engagements, the artists demonstrated their belief in the importance of experimentation, community, and creative freedom.

The language of CoBrA lead to the creation of improvisatory paintings, poems, prose, sculptures, films, prints and drawings. Visually, the work combines abstraction and figuration, with faces, animals and words emerging from spontaneous mark making.

While the group disbanded in 1951 primarily due to the hospitalization of artists Asger Jorn and Christian Dotremont from tuberculosis the spirit of CoBrA continued to define the creative approaches of many of its participants. The majority remained in contact throughout their lives and continued to collaborate. Many also reunited through their participation in pivotal avant-garde movements that followed CoBrA, such as the Situationist International, Gruppe Spur, Arte Nucleare and the Imaginist Bauhaus, all of which shared ideals of a free society which celebrated unbridled creativity.

Miami-based, Venezuelan artist Carola Bravo’s work includes architectural public art and immersive site-specific video and art installations. Through her practice she explores the geometry of our spaces and how they intersect with history, memory and time. Touching on themes such as change, home, exile and hope, Bravo examines our sense of belonging through the ordering of space. Her interest in landscape, places and territories form the basis of her examination of the conceptual and emotional implications of our relationships with space and time.

With Between Absence and Presence, Bravo challenges traditional commemoration and the use of public monuments by inverting a pedestal and covering it in a mirrored surface, reflecting spectators and the surrounding environment. The reflective presence of the spectator integrated into the absence of where a commemorative object is expected to be is meant to highlight society’s inverted values by directing the viewers’ gaze towards themselves, initiating questions about this legitimizing form of the monument, long recognized as means for assigning value to people, events and things.

The Bass is situated in Collins Park, a public park in Miami Beach, where there are presently four monuments that were commissioned by different groups at various times. Sitting atop stone plinths in the south side of the park, these existing monuments pay homage to Cuban epidemiologist Dr. Carlos Finlay, Venezuelan political leader Simón Bolívar, Nicaraguan scientist Dr. Luis Henry Debayle and Cuban writer Jose Martí. Amid an international debate on monuments and their legitimacy, New Monuments seeks to provide artists the opportunity to produce a new, temporary fifth monument.

“The Bass conceived of New Monuments as a way to elevate artistic voices in Miami,” said Silvia Karman Cubiñá, Executive Director and Chief Curator of The Bass. “In its third year, we’re excited to continue to provide a forum where local artists engage in the national conversation redefining monuments and who or what they honor and represent.”

Building upon the question of “what is a monument” and engaging in current conversations, Between Absence and Presence is the third work in the New Monuments open artist call.