After Utopia: Pavilions and Spirit Lines

December 2, 2025–March 1, 2026
The Wolfsonian–FIU @ 1001 Washington Avenue

After Utopia: Pavilions and Spirit Lines, an installation by Marco Brambilla, transforms The Wolfsonian's Bridge Tender House through mottos associated with past and present world's fairs—what the artist considers "spirit lines." Acting as ideological anchors, these lines shaped how visitors understood each fair's theme and vision for the future, ideas that Brambilla also explores in his new video work, After Utopia. Bringing his project out onto the street, Brambilla activates the Bridge Tender House with graphic renderings of 18 expos' spirit lines that distill the ambition of the era into a message of progress, innovation, and better life through technology.

Presented in connection with Marco Brambilla: After Utopia.

About the Bridge Tender House

Architects Harrington & Cortelyou's Art Deco-style Bridge Tender House, dedicated as the Josephine Baker Pavilion, is one of two stainless-steel structures that sat at the ends of the Northwest 27th Avenue Bridge over the Miami River after its 1939 expansion. The Bridge Tender House was saved from demolition when the bridge was rebuilt and donated to The Wolfsonian in 1993. Today it is located in front of the museum along Washington Avenue and is often the site of contemporary art installations.

Banner image: Marco Brambilla, After Utopia: Pavilions and Spirit Lines (detail), 2025.