Miami Art Fairs: Ilya and Emilia Kabakov

The Daily Serving · December 11, 2010 Written by Rebekah Drysdale

On Saturday in Miami, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov announced the first North American version of their Ship of Tolerance project, taking place in March of 2011 in Florida. The collaborative couple, who currently live and work in Long Island, New York, invite local schoolchildren to contribute drawings that are then sewn together in the formation of a ship’s sail. The seaworthy vessels are at once powerful and poignant. Previous iterations of the project have been completed in Siwa, Egypt; Venice, Italy; and most recently in St. Moritz, Switzerland. Crafted out of bamboo, wood, and cotton, the designs of the vessels have been guided by an ancient aesthetic which “performs and embodies a message of universal goodwill, friendship, and hope,”(as stated in a publication by Wolfgang Roth & Partners Fine Art). The Floridian ship is scheduled to launch in the waters of Miami next spring.