Verbal Description: Introduction

Narrator: Entering on the sixth floor from the elevators, you will encounter the show, no existe un mundo post huracán, which translates to “a post-hurricane world doesn’t exist.” About thirty six feet ahead of you is a large scale video that is twenty feet wide. In front of you will be an amphitheater of circular seating with standard benches and backrests in the back row and lounge-like seating in the next row in front. In the middle of the amphitheater is a gap for wheelchair users and others to enter, sit and view the work. To the left is a title and intro text that faces east. The design of this exhibition is diffuse without any enclosed rooms, so you can choose your own route. There are multiple opportunities to encounter the video at the entrance of the show as you circulate the exhibition. The walls are painted a pale blue-gray. The light levels are low due to light sensitive works on display. 

As you enter to the right is a section titled, “Fractured Infrastructures” starting with Edra Soto's architectural screen titled, “GRAFT” that wraps the wall around the corner. Embedded in this fence-like installation are key chain slide viewers with photographs taken by the artist and other photographers of Hurricane Maria. If you choose to move to the right towards Gabriella Torres-Ferrer’s found object sculpture titled, Valora tu mentira americana, which translates to “Value your American Lie,” you will encounter a fallen lamp post found after hurricane María hit Puerto Rico. The lamp post is in a state of decay and wedged into a triangular corner of the museum gallery. The lamp post is nestled in the gallery corner and projects out along that wall with dangling wires. From there, straight ahead continues with this section an alcove of three paintings along the three walls with potted plants on the floor beneath the paintings by Rogelio Báez Vega to create an installation atmosphere. To the left again is another section titled, “Critiques of Tourism”, with a large painting hung on the wall adjacent to three framed works on paper also hung on the wall by Gamaliel Rodríguez There is a sandcastle on a pedestal floating in space titled Castillos de arena, translating to “Sand Castles” by Yiyo Tirado Rivera to the left along with a large screen displaying the video, B-Roll by Sofía Gallisá Muriente. To the right of the big video there is another space titled, “Processing, Grieving, Reflecting”, with a pedestal displaying several photographs positioned vertically and connected together with thread from the series Ojalá nos encontremos en el mar by Gabriella N. Báez which translates to “Hopefully, We’ll Meet at Sea”. In this space are several other vitrines with objects that belonged to Báez’s father also part of the same series. There is another vitrine on the left wall, displaying a book titled while they sleep (under the bed is another country) by Raquel Salas Rivera. There is an adjacent bench to sit and read through the book. In the next space titled, “Ecological Histories / Landscapes”, there are three free-standing large paintings on armatures that hold them up like sculptural objects that are part of a series titled Air Paintings by Candida Alvarez. In the left corner beyond the paintings is a large video on a projection with Spanish content by Sofía Gallisá Muriente titled Celaje, which translates to “Cloudscape” with multi modal seating that suggests rock formations like those included in the video. The seat to the left is an accessible height and the seat to the right is much lower to the ground. 

As you proceed into the final section titled “Resistance, Protest” you are confronted to the left by a wall of graphic posters by Garvin Sierra Vega, embedded within that same wall are monitors displaying video recordings of Taller Gráfico PR’s Instagram feed where the posters originally existed. A project by Miguel Luciano titled Shields / Escudos consisting of ten protest shields installed on posts is in the middle of the room in a V shaped island that you can circulate around. Past this and through a door onto the outdoor terrace, there is a final artwork by Gabriela Salazar titled, Rendering of Reclamation (and Place, Puerto Rico), made of various objects built up and scattered around but not meant to be touched or climbed. Once you return indoors from the terrace, move straight ahead and to the right are the elevators to exit the floor.