Lost Spaces and Stories of Vizcaya

Lost Spaces and Stories of Vizcaya—Curator Gina Wouters, and artists Mira Lehr and Yara Travieso talk about What This Place Does Not Remember, one of eleven projects in the contemporary art exhibition Lost Spaces and Stories at Vizcaya Museum and Gardens in Miami, Florida.

The inspiration for Mira Lehr's and Yara Travieso's dramatic Baroque performance installation? The wild garden at the edge of the museum's south property and Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, an English opera he composed more than 300 years ago. The opera tells the mythological story of Dido, Queen of Carthage, and her love for the Trojan hero Aeneas. In What This Place Does Not Remember, the two contemporary artists personify Vizcaya as the legendary Queen Dido. Lehr's environmental installation sets the stage for Dido's Lament, the performance that Travieso directs. An opera singer, a dancer, and a cellist enact the queen’s tragic love story within a lyric web of black rope that evokes the surrounding mangroves.

Sound Editor: Guney Ozscan | Dido's Lament performance: Amanda Crider (Mezzo Soprano), Stephanie Jaimes (Cellist)