Miquel Navarro wants you to Play With Your Art!

 

Our first impression of an art museum is quiet galleries, serious, meditative visitors and paintings and sculpture carefully roped off from prying hands. Get ready for a whole new experience, because the San Diego Museum of Art is host to the United States premiere of Miquel Navarro’s “Beneath the Moon II: Journey through the City”, a hands-on, interactive artwork on display through the end of April.

“Journey Through the City” is not your average work of art. Filling an entire, newly remodeled room in the museum, guests are greeted with the sounds of laughter, giggles, murmuring voices, and the clinks and clanks of 1000 pieces of zinc and iron. The urge to fall to the floor and grab the metallic chunks, ranging in size from 2”x2” to foot-long lengths is irresistible. Children and adults alike enjoy creatively placing the oddly shaped pieces around few large fixed metallic objects that serve as focal points for beginning the building projects.

“Beneath the Moon II: Journey through the City”, was commissioned in 1994 by the Centre Pompidou in Paris, France and has been traveling the world since. Miquel Navarro was fascinated with changing urban landscapes and urban renewal. The pieces for this game/artwork came from the deconstruction of an earlier sculpture entitled “Beneath the Moon II.” The purpose of the art/game is manifold: to explore the concepts of creating a city, to consider the ideas of urban planning and transportation and to engage with others. Aside from the deeper meaning, though, the artwork is just, plain fun!

The new gallery, situated directly across from the gallery Gift shop is free and open to the public. While The Museum itself has a fee for admittance, this exhibit is free of charge and people are encouraged to come and interact with exhibit any time during Museum hours. (See below). Free, educator-led, drop-in workshops occur every Saturday and Sunday afternoon from 1:00pm – 3:30pm and 3:30pm – 5:00pm.

For more information, please visit:

http://www.sdmart.org/art/exhibit/journey-through-the-city

Museum Hours:

Sunday          noon to 5:00 p.m.

Monday          10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Tuesday        10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Wednesday  Closed

Thursday       10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Friday             10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Saturday        10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

The Museum also hosts Family Drop-In Days every Sunday from 1:00-3:00p.m. Each week in The Studio families will explore a new art, play games, earn prizes and participate in docent-led tours. Free with Museum admission. Don’t forget to meet “Arty”, the new children’s mascot for the Museum of Art!