{"id":108926,"date":"2025-12-02T16:30:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T16:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?post_type=articles&p=108926"},"modified":"2025-12-02T16:31:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T16:31:08","slug":"faena-art-es-devlin-miami-art-basel-grazia-gazette-2025","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/faena-art-es-devlin-miami-art-basel-grazia-gazette-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Sun, Sea, & Sand: Es Devlin Hosts the Ultimate Book Club at Art Basel"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Es Devlin, Library of Us,<\/em> 2025
Photo: Oriol Tarridas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Art Basel Miami Beach and more than 20 satellite fairs make the Magic City the ultimate December playground for global art collectors. Yet a decade ago, when Argentine hotelier Alan Faena first welcomed these moneyed snowbirds to his five-star Faena Miami Beach on Collins Avenue, he did something unusual: Through his Buenos Aires\u2013based nonprofit, Faena Art<\/a>, he placed ambitious site-specific projects directly on the sand, beyond the resort\u2019s gilded walls. Land artist Jim Denevan\u2019s illuminated mandala Solar Light Geometry<\/em> inaugurated Faena Art\u2019s use of the public beach as a plein-air gallery, and the following year 30,000 spectators turned out for Tide by Side,<\/em> a parade featuring South Florida cultural groups\u2014from the Little Haiti Cultural Center to the Miami Gay Men\u2019s Chorus\u2014marching alongside international artists such as Los Carpinteros and Ernesto Neto. \u201cNobody was doing any exhibitions on the beach\u2014it was only to take sun or to walk,\u201d Faena recalls. \u201cWe were the first to use that amazing wide stretch of sand to make art accessible to everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since then, Faena Art has collaborated with established names like Derrick Adams and Studio Drift, alongside local talents including Alexandre Arrechea and Kelly Breez, commissioning installations that address urgent social and ecological questions. Highlights include Faena Prize for the Arts winner Paula de Solminihac\u2019s Morning Glory<\/em> (2022), a topographic installation of wooden decks shaped like the dune-stabilizing beach vine, and Alaska Native artist Nicholas Galanin\u2019s Seletega<\/em> (2024), a 40-foot sculpture of a shipwrecked Spanish galleon that brought colonial and Indigenous histories into conversation. \u201cThat was a big start,\u201d Faena reflects. \u201cTen years later, we are here to continue pushing boundaries.\u201d To mark this milestone, Faena Art has invited British artist and stage designer Es Devlin\u2014whose large-scale work includes immersive installations and show sets for Chanel and Dior\u2014to create Library of Us,<\/em> a monumental library of 2,500 books.<\/p>\n

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Es Devlin, Library of Us,<\/em> 2025
Photo: Sunn Studio<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI wanted to offer a response to the question I had been asked again and again by students and young artists: \u2018Where do your ideas come from?\u2019\u201d Devlin says. \u201cOver time I have offered a range of answers, often quoting Jorge Luis Borges: \u2018I am not sure I exist actually. I am all the writers that I have read.\u2019\u201d Devlin first connected with Faena\u2019s founder over their shared love of reading. She discovered his writings on architecture, and the two had wide-ranging discussions about their favorite texts (his span from Carlos Castaneda\u2019s The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge<\/em> to Hardy Boys mysteries). The idea for Library of Us<\/em> grew from her determination to promote close reading in a world of distraction and builds on earlier kinetic installations in London and Milan that drew thousands into focused encounters with books. \u201cMy immersion in the text had become constantly interrupted by the phone in my pocket, calling me with its dopamine promise,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Library of Us opens December 2 and runs through December 7, transforming a day at the beach into an immersive literary experience. A triangular bookshelf at the center slowly revolves, surrounded by a donut-shaped reading table with stools on the inside turning in sync with the shelves, allowing 60 visitors to have an impromptu book club. LED text lines appear in both the beachfront installation and its companion Reading Room<\/em> inside the hotel\u2019s Juan Gatti\u2013muraled Faena Cathedral. Texts are displayed in English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole, with the voice track supporting visually impaired visitors. \u201cEs\u2019s piece is a reflection on how we lose our connection with the history of humanity if we lose our connection with books,\u201d Faena says. Devlin\u2019s selections\u2014including Rachel Carson\u2019s Silent Spring,<\/em> Mary Shelley\u2019s Frankenstein,<\/em> and Ocean Vuong\u2019s On Earth We\u2019re Briefly Gorgeous<\/em>\u2014engage with themes central to Faena Art. After the run, all books will be donated to Miami public libraries and schools, extending the project\u2019s impact beyond the shoreline.<\/p>\n

Read GRAZIA USA’<\/em>s\u00a0Miami Gazette<\/a>:<\/h4>\n