This is a Rehearsal–the title of CAB 5–explores how contemporary environmental, political, and economic issues are shared across national boundaries but are addressed differently around the world through art, architecture, infrastructure, and civic participation. CAB 5 builds on and expands Floating Museum’s ongoing work, including site-responsive art and design projects and public programs, to explore divergent interpretations of infrastructure, history, and the role of aesthetics as a mode for expanding how we frame the relationship between our environments and ourselves.

Cities are always evolving—continuously shaped and reshaped by the millions of people who inhabit them through a process of action and reaction. Over time, the accumulation of buildings and infrastructure creates a layered index of the ideals and policies of past generations. Rehearsal invites new possibilities through open dialogue, creative invention, and a generative process of discovery to understand how hope and care can emerge in architecture. Harnessing dialogue is paramount to CAB 5’s conception of rehearsal. It is a productive tool that establishes new lines of thinking that question the status quo through modes ranging from conversations and performances to installations, drawings, and new technologies. In this sense, CAB 5 welcomes alternative ways of making architecture and engages everyone to rethink, rework, and reimagine the present and future of cities.

La Distancia / The Distance

Edra Soto’s practice draws on the ornamental motifs that decorate Puerto Rico’s residential architecture as symbolic forms representing the diversity of Puerto Rican cultural identity. Her work engages the role of African diasporic traditions and the lasting role they continue to play as a result of deep colonial histories. Specifically citing structures known as quiebrasoles and rejas, Soto considers the existing architecture, the environment, and the community of a place, conceptually representing an imaginary transplant or migratory gesture. 

“La Distancia” features a seating sculpture modeled on Puerto Rico’s idiomatic bus shelters. The variety of styles of bus shelters that can be found at each municipality of Puerto Rico is quite extensive. Sometimes, the bus shelter style is infused with decorative elements that align with a theme specific to its municipality, such as beach life, music, or sports. For this sculpture, Soto sourced the four-point star motif from a personal archive of decorative concrete blocks from Puerto Rico rooted in West African Adinkra symbology. Adinkra are symbols from Ghana that represent concepts or aphorisms and are used extensively in fabrics, logos, pottery, and architecture. In Adinkra, the four-point star or Eban is a symbol of love, safety, and protection. Additionally, the sculpture features bilingual writing through which creatives from all disciplines are invited to reflect on the contexts of their individual fields of expertise.

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