22/12/20 - In spite of the pandemic and the suspended fairs, Miami decided to honor the first week of December as Art Week. So artists and curators were summoned to create projects in which the health of the visitors wouldn't be in jeopardy. This premise gave birth to Dreaming with Lions by Alexandre Arrechea in the beach in front of the Faena Hotel, as part of Faena Art.

The artist was one of the founders of the Cuban group Los Carpinteros (active between 1991-2003), but he is actually working on his own development, always committed with History, memory and political debate related to urbanity.

The installation is the result of an year's work reflecting on Ernest Hemingway's novel The Old man and the Sea, written in Cuba in 1951. It has two semicircular structures of 19 mts diameters with a series of shelves with white and red beach towels. These towels are placed in such a way that together they form letters and those letters read two quotes from the book:

“Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.”

Dreaming with Lions, by Alexandre Arrechea (2020)

 

The two quotes picked up by Arrechea can be seen from a far and belong to two different moments in the novel: the first one is when the leading character must step back and re-charge to face what's coming and, the second, when he is immersed in a dire situation. Thus Dreaming with Lions is a monument that aims to make us reflect on our ability to adjust to what's about to happen, to the unexpected.