Enrique Martinez Celaya: Schneebett
October 14, 2011 - January 22, 2012
Exhibition Preview: October 13, 6-9pm
Miami Art Museum presents the United States debut of Enrique Martínez Celaya’s Schneebett, a major installation inspired by Ludwig van Beethoven’s convalescence and death in Vienna, Austria in 1827, originally created for the Berliner Philharmonie. Enrique Martínez Celaya: Schneebett will be on view from October 14, 2011 through January 1, 2012 in the Museum’s Anchor Gallery, a space dedicated to large-scale works from the permanent collection. The three-part installation conveys Beethoven’s final moments in Vienna, far away from his native Bonn. 
In one room is a bronze bed, its surface covered in a thick layer of frost created by an elaborate compressor system. Behind it is a large tar-and-feather painting of a dense, snow-covered forest. The entry to the room is blocked by a pile of sticks and branches. On the other side of the blocked doorway is an “ante-chamber” with a solitary chair from which a viewer can peer into the inaccessible “bedroom,” and experience the environment as a memory of what was, or what might have been. The Leipziger Volkszeitung remarked that Beethoven’s presence “literally hovers in the air as sound.”
Related Programs
- Exhibition Preview and lecture: A preview wil be held Thursday, October 13, 2011, 6-9pm. Open to the public. MAM members free, non-members $10.
Online Visitors' Gallery
Exhibition Support and Organization
Enrique Martinez Celaya - Schneebett is supported by Jennifer & Gary Nader.
Additional support provided by Ana & Mitchell Bierman.
In kind support provided by Tatiana C. & Alejandro Fernandez.
Image:
Enrique Martínez Celaya
Schneebett (Snow-bed), 2003-4
Mixed media installation
Dimensions variable
Collection Miami Art Museum, promised gift of Dieter and Si Rosenkranz
Courtesy of Enrique Martínez Celaya
