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January 24, 2021

The Boston Globe

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Seaport’s ‘Mi Casa, Your Casa 2.0’ conjures images of home

A new Seaport Common art installation of 16 red beam “houses,” each about 10 feet tall, invites people to reflect on the meaning of home, after a year marked by the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Titled “Mi Casa, Your Casa 2.0” and on view until March 14, the piece was inspired by Latin America’s mercados, bustling street markets filled with vendors, food, and life. The closeness of the installation’s “houses” mean viewers can see “their neighbor’s parallel journey” beside them, according to a Boston Seaport statement. (Don’t fret — there is still ample room for social distancing.)

 

“When a casa [home] is empty, a welcoming white glow bids you to enter. Once inside, the glow intensifies to show that someone is home,” the statement continues. Each structure in the installation is also equipped with a full-size, usable swing.A new Seaport Common art installation of 16 red beam “houses,” each about 10 feet tall, invites people to reflect on the meaning of home, after a year marked by the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

The installation is the brainchild of Héctor Esrawe and Ignacio Cadena. Esrawe is an award-winning Mexican multidisciplinary designer of interior and architectural projects, installations, and furniture. The High Museum of Art in Atlanta, where “Mi Casa, Your Casa 2.0” was first displayed, houses a permanent collection of his work.

 

The pair’s creation has been placed in several museums and public spaces around the world. Hammocks have been hung within the “houses” in the past, and the piece even became the basis of a temporary refuge for families displaced by a 2017 earthquake in Mexico.

 

“This installation activates public spaces through emotional and playful design, it shows the value of human interaction, the tendency to socialize is behind and at the core of the project,” the creators wrote in a release.

 

Seaport Boston is donating one dollar to Habitat for Humanity for every image of “Mi Casa, Your Casa 2.0” posted on Instagram, with the tag @seaportbos in the image and caption. The organization hopes the donations “will help local families build or improve on a place they can call home,” per its statement.

 

The Seaport will host a talk with the creators via Zoom on March 3 at 5 p.m. Register at www.bostonseaport.xyz/events/.

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