Amalia Pica Transforms The Rotunda at The Bass
The Bass Museum of Art will debut Amalia Pica: Lecturas Posibles on September 17, 2026, introducing an interactive installation that invites visitors to become active participants in the artwork. On view through February 2027 at The Rotunda, the museum's satellite gallery in Collins Park, the exhibition reimagines the historic space as a communal environment where drawing, writing, and collaboration become part of the artistic experience.
Created by Argentine-born artist Amalia Pica, Lecturas Posibles transforms The Rotunda into what the museum describes as an almost two-dimensional library. Walls, furniture, bookshelves, desks, and everyday objects are coated in chalkboard paint and outlined in white, creating a graphic environment that blurs the distinction between objects and images. Visitors are encouraged to write, draw, and leave marks throughout the installation using colored chalk, allowing the exhibition to evolve continuously over its five-month run.
The project draws inspiration from both Pica's long-running exploration of language, communication, and education, and the history of The Bass itself. Before becoming a contemporary art museum, the building served as the Miami Beach Public Library and Art Center in the 1930s, the city's first public exhibition space for art. In 1962, a new library was built in Collins Park, with The Rotunda serving as its central gathering space. Although that library was demolished in the 1980s, the circular Rotunda remained because it is enclosed by Albert Vrana's sculptural bas-relief mural, The Story of Man, a public artwork celebrating the role of writing and language throughout human history.
After researching the site's history, Pica reimagined the once largely inaccessible structure as a shared reading room where visitors collectively create new narratives. Books within the installation have been fused shut, preventing traditional reading while encouraging visitors to imagine alternative stories and reflect on how knowledge is created and shared.
Over the past three decades, Pica has explored how people communicate, learn, and assign meaning through everyday materials and familiar settings. Influenced in part by her early career as a primary school teacher, her work often references classrooms and educational environments as places where ideas are formed and challenged.
In Lecturas Posibles, the simple act of writing inside what appears to be a library becomes part of the artwork itself. Chalk was selected as the primary medium because it can be erased, emphasizing participation over permanence. As visitors add and remove marks over time, the installation continually changes, reflecting the evolving nature of learning and collective expression.
The exhibition also references literary ideas associated with Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges, whose writings explored the boundaries between knowledge, fiction, and order. The circular architecture of The Rotunda further reinforces themes of gathering, discussion, and shared experience, placing visitors in the dual role of reader and author.
For more information, please visit: thebass.org.