USA TODAY International Edition
HOW A SMASHED VASE RILED MIAMI
One man’s stunning act of vandalism ignites a cultural debate over the proper deference for local art
Maximo Caminero says he was standing up for unrepresented local artists when he smashed a valuable vase crafted by a foreign artist on display at the Pérez Art Museum Miami.
Opened in December, the Pérez is the city’s latest endeavor to make itself known on the world cultural stage, and the act of vandalism, however principled, was seen by many as embarrassing.
“I agree with how he felt,” said Jacob Cordero, 35, an abstract surrealist artist from North Miami Beach. “There are a lot of talented local artists that … get overlooked. But what he did? ... It’s just disrespectful.”
But Caminero succeeded in prompting a conversation over the direction of Miami’s future as it continues to bolster its attractions beyond beaches, bikinis and the Miami Heat, to compete with artistic capitals in the USA and abroad.
Among its latest entrants are the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, opened in 2006, the second- largest center of its kind in the country, and the Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science, scheduled to open in 2015.
Pérez curator Tobias Ostrander is mindful of the delicate balance Miami needs to maintain between South Florida’s unique blend of American and Latin American culture as it looks beyond Florida for inspiration.
“As we think of Miami as a cultural context, its history, population and geographical location make it a special place to think about Latin American art, as well as North American art production,” Ostrander told the Miami New Times. “But I also see the importance of placing the cultural production of these areas in dialogue with other cultural contexts globally, such as Africa, Europe or India.”
Caminero, a Dominican- born artist, disagreed.
Last Sunday, the Dominicanborn artist walked into the PAMM — a gleaming, 200,000square- feet museum overlooking Biscayne Bay — and approached a display by famed Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, whose Han Dynasty vases dipped in industrial paint are supposed to provoke discussions about the value and meaning of art.
Caminero, 51, said he was not trying to mimic or insult Ai when he casually picked up one of the vases, ignored a security guard’s order and dropped it to the ground, smashing it to pieces. The estimated value of the vase was $ 1 million.
“I don’t have anything against him,” Caminero told USA TODAY by phone. He said he was trying to highlight how the PAMM does not do enough to exhibit the work of local artists.
“The reality is that museums exist to show what happens in that city,” said Caminero, who is free on bond and facing a charge of criminal mischief. “You have to show what’s happening in the city. Who are these people? Where do they come from?”
However one feels about his delivery, the question he raised is one that museum directors across the country constantly face.
Lara Stein Pardo, an artist and fellow at the Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage at Brown University, said museums often grapple to strike a balance between respecting local artwork and bringing in great works from renowned artists.
“That’s happened everywhere — in Chicago, in New York,” Pardo said.
In Miami’s artsy Wynwood neighborhood, Michael Perez, a pop art painter from New York who moved here seven years ago, said gallery districts are the proper place for showcasing local talent.
“To get culture in Miami, you have to show world- renowned artists in a museum,” said Perez, 54. “Local artists belong in galleries.”
A few blocks down, Jenny Perez, a Cuban- Dominican abstract pop artist, doesn’t understand why someone would be upset about having a museum attracting world- class art to their hometown.
“Leave it to Miami,” she said. “We open our first major museum and somebody’s gotta go and break something.”