The Department of Reflection

The Department of Reflection, directed by Misael Soto, will conceive of a new artwork in collaboration with The Wolfsonian–FIU and inspired by the museum’s collection and archives related to infrastructural landmarks and technological advancements of the last century, as well as dystopian works of social criticism, such as John and Ruth Vassos’ novels Contempo (1929) and Ultimo (1930). The Wolfsonian mainly collects works from a time during which great urban landscapes were being envisioned and streamlined transportation was beginning to be mass produced, the promotion of which was tied to economic propaganda dominated by the United States. The Department of Reflection hopes to scrutinize these works and use them as a jumping off point from which to build a new installation whose core is situated within contemporary issues such as structural white supremacy and the ever-evolving and accelerating climate crisis, as they relate to the global and hyper local. This would be an opportunity for some of The Wolfsonian’s collection to not only be revered (as it should and often is), but to become part of a community-involved dialogue relating it to some of our era’s most pressing concerns. This exhibition is slated to be up in late 2023.