Curated by BHMF With the partnership of MAD Murate Art District

In collaboration with: Boomker Sound Studios Syracuse University Florence SRISA Vivaio Il Giardiniere Antonella Bundu Chris Norcross

And we can no longer breathe And we can no longer see But, in the escape compagno In the fear, compagno Like in the fight, compagno I will be forever by your side

Collettivo Victor Jara, Le Murate

These were the words written and sung by the musical collective Victor Jara days after the 1974 revolt at le Murate jails. Protest against unfit living conditions and oppressive forces are frequent in sites which separate, either willingly or by force, social groups from the world that surrounds them. The socio-spiritual nature of what is just and human worth is at the root of contemplation in isolation. These feelings originated from the artist’s encounter with Le Murate. Progetti Arte Contemporanea, they led the project. For the occasion of the fourth edition of Black History Month Florence current Rome Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Rome Karyn Olivier presents Because Time In This Place Does Not Obey An Order, a series of site specific installations that grapple with the relationship between justice and spirituality. The works engage the history of Le Murate and its transition from a site of spiritual recluse to a carceral space sifting through the continuity and contrast that these histories evoke. Mental health, social critique, isolation, the closeting of history and the conflation of senses set cloistered gardens in dialogue with the steady words of Martin Luther King Jr. writing from a jail cell and reveal traces of life behind closed doors which claims universal rights.