Saturday, Sorted: 3 Galleries by Yuko Mohri and a Samurai Negroni by Watr Rooftop Created with 1 Hotels
Courtesy of 1 Hotel South Beach
Equal parts ambitious and ambling, this back-pocket plan for a day in South Beach has you covered from outline to outfit. Bookmark it for an impromptu day date, a weekend outing with the in-laws, or when, against all odds, a blank-slate Saturday suddenly appears on your calendar.
See: Yuko Mohri’s South Beach Fruit Band at the Bass Museum
Technically, the South Florida fruit sitting still-life style in the first gallery of Yuko Mohri’s Unviolated Imperfection exhibition isn’t a band, but it is creating electronic music. Titled Decomposition, the piece is part of the Tokyo-based artist’s first stateside solo show, which unfolds across three galleries in the Bass Museum. The tableau is beautifully arranged, but it’s not exactly a still life, either: Each fruit is linked up to electrodes; as the fruit decays, the electrodes capture changes in moisture and translates them into the lights and electric music you experience in the gallery. The process ties back to Mohri’s thesis that artwork is ever-changing and site- specific, rather than fixed and unchanging. Relatable! And that’s just gallery one—the Biennale banger is right around the corner.
Yuko Mohri , Decomposition, 2024. Photography by Koshiro Shikine. Courtesy of the artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York.
Inspired by Marcel Duchamp’s readymades, Moré Moré (Leaky) is rebuilt for every exhibition, so the 2024 Venice Biennale version and the Bass Mueseum version are unique expressions of a one (very large) framework and a single idea: The outsized, complex—and in true Duchamp style, funny—attempts to control leaks in the Tokyo’s underground stations. Like the fruit, the materials for Moré Moré’s Miami moment are locally sourced to create a singular South Florida story. Past installations have employed a shiny pink full-length glove, a bicycle wheel, and a drum, but we fully expect the Miami secondhand store finds to outweird them. On your way out, Piano Solo treats you to a score of live composition and electric notes translated from the sound of rolling waves, delivered by way of a single self-playing piano.
Sip: A Samurai Negroni with an Ocean View
There’s plenty to unpack post-exhibition and only one way to do it: With an ocean view and a Samurai Negroni. Luckily, Watr Rooftop at 1 Hotel South Beach is right around the corner. The five-minute walk from Yuko to yuzu weaves through Collins Park, and it’s peppered with installations that are part of the museum’s Art Outside program. In the unlikely event you get lost, look up and head toward sculptor Ugo Rondinone’s Miami Mountain (you’ll recognize the towering totem of giant neon stones from your 2016 Instagram feed) and you’ll be right back on track.
The mood at Watr is quintessentially South Beach: all clean lines and cortisol-regulating neutrals, with plenty of tables and seating shaded by palms more well- manicured than the shirtless joggers 18 floors down. The view is universally epic, so whether you sit at the bar or take over an entire corner, you’re covered. As for drinks, we’re partial to the Yuzu Spritz, a citrusy-ginger cocktail that plays well with the Japanese-inspired bites on the menu, but whoever orders the zero-proof Pineapple Express with lion’s mane and turmeric is most likely to dominate the art debate.
Pro tip: If you’re looking for more than light bites, head downstairs to AVIV. Post up at the bar, order the tayim tasting menu, and watch chef Michael Solomonov and crew char al ha’esh over the open fire.
