Palms stretching to the deep blue sky and the warm air hitting your face make you feel good. You feel like you are on a movie set amidst the vibrantly colored cabrio model cars.
In this article, I will talk about the city of the world’s tallest women and plastic surgeons 🙂 My travel route this time is Miami, the city of happy people 🙂 Don’t mind what I call my travel route, as you know I live here. ARTTMODERNMIAMI NEWS was born here. For every day I live here, I must say; I’m glad I made a radical decision and moved here, I’m glad I see these colors and breathe this air every day. Miami is a special place where the weather is always nice (not counting hurricanes and rarely cold weather). It has a tropical climate, and it rains like crazy. Hurricanes are famous. Let me tell you something interesting: Americans named hurricanes after women 🙂 That means, be afraid of us :))) There is a lot to tell, let me start with my job; if you’re ready, we’re all going to Miami.
I attended Miami Art Week & Art Basel as an artist at the beginning of December. I will tell you about the art, the artists, the atmosphere of Miami. What’s the legendary Miami like?
Art Week & Basel has been held in Miami for nearly 20 years. It’s not a very long time, but they have come a long way. I’ve never seen a place where art makes it beautiful. If we do not count the covid period, I have been attending for the last 5 years. Every year you learn something new, see new artists, techniques and admire. Talented artists from all over the world are truly worth seeing. In general, pop-art dominates, and design-oriented works are in line with the spirit of Miami and are preferred. Graffiti dominates the streets and the city is alive. Art Week Miami & Basel is held annually from 30 November to 5 December and becomes a meeting place for galleries, artists and art lovers from all over the world. Art week lasts for a week and if you are an art lover, going to all the art fairs is a passion. I’m an artist, but I’m also a daydreamer. While visiting those fairs, I dream of being a decorator. And I dream of buying one of those gorgeous artworks for my imaginary client’s home or office. My soul is like a collector; I want to collect
and wrap beautiful things.
Miami Art Week & Basel hosts separate fairs. Art Basel, Spectrum Miami, Art Design, Scope, Unlimited, Design Week are the leading ones. Miami is a place where it is 26-27C degrees even in December and a city that is the focus of tourist cruise travels. When you add these wonderful art fairs to that, imagine the mobility, please! Artists, galleries and Hollywood celebrities from all over the world never miss this “artweek”. Art is a passion and anyone who has that passion can understand and deeply feel what I am writing right now. If you’re not in that feeling, I can simply tell you it’s been a very colorful week.
There was a Turkish gallery among the galleries participating in this year’s fair. We had pleasant conversations with Nazan Aktan, the founder of Act Artistes Contemporains Turquie, and the artist Hande Uğur. In another article, I will tell you about their beautiful and colorful world. I know you will definitely be impressed. Nazan Aktan lives in Paris and establishes the “Paris Association of Contemporary Artists”. They take part in art fairs in America and Europe.
If you ask how Miami is outside of art fairs; the city literally lives with colour, art and entertainment. Colorful parties are a must in Miami. By the way, we should not forget the most glamorous women in the world, which you can see on the streets and on the beaches.
It’s like they gathered all the tall women in this city, I won’t say the same for men 😉 Medium height and Latin men are Miami normal… For some reason, I always think of romance novels and white series that I read when I was very young 🙂 You can witness Botticelli’s famous work “The Birth of Venus” from almost every corner. It is a different city, and you can feel it even when you set foot in the first airport. With its modern airport adorned with art and graffiti and its glamorous visitors, you can immediately see the difference; you can feel that smell like a perfume.
What is Art Basel? How was it start?
It started in the city of Basel in 1970, which is one of the most important world fairs today, with the efforts of three gallerists. Today, the event has spread to three continents: Europe, America and Asia. It is one of the leading modern-contemporary art exhibitions that have made a name for itself in the world. The first one took place in Miami in 2002.
When it comes to Miami, it is impossible not to mention Miami Beach. There is such a beautiful coastline that you can get up at sunrise every morning, take your coffee and go for a walk.
I think all of Florida is one of the places where sunrise and sunset are the most beautiful, but since our topic is Miami, I will continue from here. While running with the dazzling aromatic scents of tropical plants, each more beautiful than the other; you see beautiful people running towards you, with their athletic and healthy bodies, in harmony with the atmosphere. With quick greetings and good mornings, the colorful lifeguard huts of Miami Beach give you joy. What a perfect place to start a day, isn’t it? You are loaded with lots of motivation. By the way, I’ll admit, I may not be a good hiking companion because I’m the type of person who wants to take every beautiful shot I see.
I want to tell you a little bit about the history of my Miami. Do you remember the Miami Vice series from the 90s? A show where Don Johnson is a handsome detective in a jacket with rolled up sleeves and baggy pants with pleats on the front. Miami was already becoming popular for me in those years. The people who make it most popular are completely separate characters in history. But did you know that the name Miami actually belongs to an Indian tribe?
I can summarize the short encyclopedic history of Miami as follows: Miami was officially established as a city on July 28, 1896. It is a city with a different image and culture compared to the classical structure of other American cities. The majority of the population consists of Cubans, Haitians and Caribbeans, who are called Hispanic.
The oldest history of Miami was discovered in 1492 when the American continent was discovered; One of the first places to be discovered was the Florida coast. Spanish Juan Ponce de Leon discovered Miami in 1513 and became the first European to find it. De Leon and his men had explored Miami from the ship and watched from afar and had probably never set foot in the area. At the beginning of the 1500s, the place where the present city of Miami is, was discovered by Europeans, but it was after 1550 that European immigrants began to settle here.
When Europeans started coming to Florida, diseases increased due to the germs they brought from Europe, albeit unintentionally. Wars among the native tribes also increased. Therefore, the population of the region began to decline rapidly shortly after Europeans set foot here. After that, until the 1700s, today’s Miami area did not attract much attention. When Europeans migrated to America by ships, they often landed where Miami was. But they did not stop here and continued on their way and lived with other Europeans in the inner parts of the country. At that time, for a place to be registered as a permanent settlement, at least a certain number of white people had to live there (Some sources say 1 white person per 100 acres). Although there were traders, hunters, and soldiers who came and went to the Miami area from time to time, no one settled here permanently. It would take the 1800s for white people to settle in Miami en masse. Meanwhile, pirate activities emerging in the Caribbean were affecting the Miami area. Although the pirates did not attack here much, they often did not hesitate to use the forested areas here for rest and hiding. In the 1800s, when Europeans waged war against pirates, they began sinking pirate ships and executing the pirates they captured, many of them turned into treasure hunters. Some of these people settled in Miami, and some of these people were also given land titles by the American government, which distributed title deeds to those who settled on vacant lots at that time. In 1830, the first slaves were brought to the city and these slaves were used in the production of tropical fruit. It begins in 1891 when Julia Tuttle moves to South Florida and persuades the oil company owner named Henry Flagler to encourage him to invest in Miami. The name Flagler is well known in Florida. For example, Flagler College is a well-known university in Florida. Miami is the first and only city in America to be founded by a woman. That’s why today there is a bridge that connects Miami Beach and Miami Downtown in the name of Julia Tuttle, and a big boulevard called Flagler Street that cuts the city on the east-west axis. By the 1920s, Miami was a constantly growing city.
With Florida becoming the new stop for gold prospectors after California and the population quadrupling
almost overnight, the silhouette began to change, and the borders began to expand.
Please visualize all the western movies you’ve watched so far! Can you imagine that this is one of the areas
where those gold prospectors are? Imagine movies with actors who are constantly sweating and drinking
water from their flat flasks while searching for gold. But because it is a very hot region, probably due to
the effect of the heat, people always seem smiling and happy. For this reason, many investors flocked to
the region. It was established as South Florida’s first planned site built with Mediterranean/Spanish
influences. Meanwhile, the Mediterranean/Spanish breeze is felt all over Miami and Florida. I have visited
many countries and cities in Europe. I love to make analyzes for myself wherever I go.
That’s why I can feel and say the Spanish/Mediterranean air very easily. I would say modern and tropical
as decoration style. Big banana trees and palm trees are everywhere, and it is very possible to convey this
texture to textiles or wallpapers…
Anyway. Other investors were also included in this group, and over time, they made projects in Miami in
very different styles and scales. Large and luxurious hotels built on Miami Beach contributed to the
promotion of the city with many polo and golf courses. While Miami’s rise in the 1920s seemed like it
would never end, a devastating disaster occurred in 1926 due to a major storm.
In 1929, a serious economic crisis occurred throughout the country. In the 1930s, while Art Deco style
hotels continued to be built with the support of investors, both the economic crisis environment was
overcome with the least damage and these investments became an important architectural feature that
will make Miami internationally famous in the future.
During the First World War, the American army used many hotels in Miami as their home base. Luxury
hotels have been turned into hospitals, and golf courses have been turned into practice areas. After the
war, Miami became popular again, becoming a popular city where retirees in search of more daylight and
peaceful life moved to establish a new life.
After Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba in 1959, many people from Cuba immigrated to Miami. Immigrant
Cubans, Caribbean residents and South Americans have also played an important role in making Miami
an internationally renowned, cosmopolitan city, as Julia Tuttle once planned.
Miami is now a major transformational space, disconnected from each other but driven by personal
initiative and investment. Wynwood, known as the Wynwood Art District and famous for its murals
including world-renowned street artists, has turned into an alternative culture-art district today. It is not
the state or institutions behind this transformation, but an entrepreneur named Tony Goldman.
Tony Goldman is also a visionary who helped shape New York’s SoHo. The process of regeneration has
been started by taking the places that have become urban depression areas and making them kind of
gentrified. In this transformation, positive effects of street art and the increase in the number of
pedestrians brought by street art were utilized.
I hope I was able to take you to Art Basel and Art Week and make you feel the atmosphere of Miami with
what I told you.
In this city you are absolutely far from the world’s problems. You may be a small dot in the universe, but
you are sure to be a happy point. Life here is like the lyrics of a song that was once popular in Turkey.
“I do three or five laps in Bebek,
If it didn’t work, I’ll go Miami.
As you can see, I am very forgetful”
I wish everyone days when we focus on the beauties of life and get rid of toxic emotions.
Bye until the next post…
Tuğba Yazıcı
Sanatçı & Creative Director
www.tugbayazici.com.tr
Instagram: tugbayaziciofficial
Instagram: arttmodernmiami
References
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