Movement, Sound, and Abstraction

Performance artist and educator Smita Sens works at the intersection of sculpture, dance-based performance, and advanced technology, researching how the body internalizes its environment and the weight of lived experience. Her practice explores how the human body becomes a living document — storing tension, movement, memory, and emotion across a lifetime.

Sens will lead visitors through the Abstraction as Legacy exhibition, drawing connections between the works on view and the language of her own practice, inviting us to see abstract art not as something to be decoded, but as something to be felt, moved through, and moved by.

Following the tour, the evening deepens with Ressonnance, an immersive sound and wellness collective founded by YoungArts Jazz Trumpet Awardee Alum Stéphane Clément and sonic architect Nicolaus Gelin. Clément weaves his German Haitian heritage into a rich jazz foundation, while Gelin crafts soundscapes that dissolve the boundary between music and transcendence. Together, they will compose a live response to the space and the works within it.

In collaboration, Sens and Ressonnance will guide guests through a performance that functions as an invitation to let the body lead, to listen, and to find in sound and motion a new way of moving through art, memory, and meaning.

This program offers an alternative way of navigating abstraction, not through the mind alone, but through the body, the breath, and the resonance of sound.

Attendees may park for free in MDC's Parking Lot 1 located on the south side of the Freedom Tower, between NE Fifth and NE Sixth Streets.

The Museum of Art and Design (MOAD) at MDC may document the event, including its attendees. By entering the area, and/or participating in the event, you consent to the recording and its use in any form.

MOAD's programs are made possible with the support of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor, and the Board of County Commissioners. They are sponsored in part by the State of Florida Division of Arts and Culture, with support from Art Bridges, and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

The programs at the Freedom Tower, operated by the Museum of Art and Design (MOAD) at Miami Dade College (MDC), are made possible with the support of the Miami-Dade County Department of of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor, and the Board of County Commissioners. They are sponsored by the State of Florida Division of Arts and Culture, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), with collections, exhibition, education and marketing support provided by Art Bridges, ArtesMiami, the Shepard Broad Foundation, the Miami Downtown Development Authority (Miami DDA), Henry Luce Foundation, Jay I. Kislak Foundation, Mitchell Wolfson Sr. Foundation, and US Century Bank.

Image: Abstraction as Legacy installation view, May 22, 2026. Photo by Oriol Tarridas.