Last week, the Chapel/Museum Campus of Corpus Christi Catholic Church presented an installation entitled "Grace, 10 Years Since" by Italian artist Pietro Costa organized by Colonial Heritage of Florida & Triennial Miami.
Curated by Jorge Luis Gutierrez, the installation pays a tribute to honor the first responders on the scene at the Twin Towers and at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 and to all those that perished including civilians and military personnel.
"Grace, 10 Years Since" first opened to the public during Art Basel Week.
The December 22 celebration started at 3PM and was attended by the Mayor of the City of Miami, Tomas Regalado, the Miami Police Chief, The Miami Fire Chief, members of the Miami Urban Search & Rescue Team and their Canine Rescue, members of the administration of the city of Miami, Community Leaders and residents of Miami.
Tenor Eduardo Calcano performed part of Verdi’s Requiem in the Chapel/Museum as guests visited the installation.
In the exhibition visitors were encouraged to pick up a strip of paper (each containing the name of one of the victims of 9/11) from the wreath at the base of the light tower and take it away in a ritual of remembrance and disseminating all the names in the world at large.
"Grace, 10 Years Since" is not a memorial for 9/11 but a metaphor about an event that affected the artist. The installation's central component is composed of concentric red neon rings suspended from the chapel's 30 foot ceiling, forming a swaying tower of light. The ethereal tower’s neon rings are held in place vertically without fixed points or knots, only by the simple tension exerted by its own weight and by four plumb bobs.
“Costa makes quiet poetry through a magical metaphor created with light and space. A moving experience so pertinent in times when many artists seem limited in nuance and complexity,” said Jorge Luis Gutierrez.
On the morning of September 11th, 2001, Costa, along with fellow residents of Cobble Hill and Downtown Brooklyn, experienced a shower of paper floating down from the sky.
Burnt, tattered and sometimes intact papers were strewn on the streets from the offices of the the people who perished that morning in the World Trade Center.
“After the attack, I’d been having this recurring nightmare that the sky was raining paper. It haunted me and I couldn’t ignore it; I couldn’t keep making art without absorbing this experience," said artist Pietro Costa.
"A few days before the installation of the column of light which had been finished before September 11, 2001, I knew exactly what the answer to my nightmare was, I needed to physically introduce this occurrence into the sculpture in a way that would memorialize those who were gone including an interactive component, something that the viewer could pick up and take away," added Costa.”
The event was possible thanks to the generosity of Pietro Costa who received support from
Colonial Heritage of Florida, TRIENNIAL MIAMI, Miami Police Department, Miami Fire DepartmentCity of Miami and Martinez Gallery, Troy, New York.
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