Messages from Guantanamo

December 3, 2005, Installation of 200 glass and plastic bottles

Miami, Florida USA

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200 bottles sent from Guantanamo Bay washed ashore on South Beach in front of the Cavalier Hotel. The glass and plastic bottles contained SOS notes, photographs, leaflets, and objects set adrift by "enemy combatants" incarcerated at Gitmo since 2002 by the United States government with intent to evade jurisdiction of both domestic and international law. After three years, at the time of this performance, many of the remaining 500 inmates still had not been charged with any crime.

 

Messages from Guantanamo gave voice to those who did not even have an identity. Passerby on Miami Beach, during Art Basel, could pick up the bottles  to inspect and peruse them. The artist imagine what one might write in times of duress and desperation, with texts in numerous languages that included love letters, cries for help, protest songs, etc.