TINY REBEL ❤️
A performance about tenderness, freedom, and the invisible borders we carry.
I created this moment with my daughter — a small act of love, courage, and playfulness — right in front of Art Basel Miami Beach.
All the materials I used — chalk spray and a chalk marker — were temporary and washable. Nothing was damaged. Throughout the entire action, her mother was filming just a few meters away. My daughter was never in danger.
In a world where access to art often depends on privilege, I wanted to give her her own place — even at the price of my own freedom.
I’m not sure I’ll ever be allowed to return to the United States — an increasingly authoritarian country in many ways — which somehow made this moment feel even more urgent and necessary.
The officers who first arrested me could have acted with more nuance, especially in a moment so clearly rooted in art, tenderness, and play. They handcuffed me immediately, before asking a single question. Only afterwards did they ask whether I was alone with my daughter. Their reaction was purely procedural — a mechanical reflex applied to a moment that was profoundly human.
Unintentionally, this response became part of the performance itself, revealing its core tension: how institutions react when innocence and freedom appear where they are not expected.
What followed were the worst 24 hours of my life, spent in a Miami jail. Inside that place, the only real help came from a few detainees who showed me kindness and guided me through the chaos — an unexpected humanity in the middle of hell.
I was released after paying 600 dollars in bail, and I will soon face a trial — an absurd consequence for a moment created with nothing but chalk, tenderness, and freedom.
Transmission
At the heart of this performance was also a very simple gesture of transmission.
My daughter paints spontaneously — without fear, without strategy, without knowing where things are supposed to lead. At her age, freedom still comes first.
I wanted to share that space with her — not to explain the world, but to let her feel that creation can be natural, joyful, and unrestrained.
If there is an inheritance in my work, it is this: not teaching her how to fit in, but giving her the confidence to move freely, to imagine, and to dare.
Title: Tiny Rebel
Medium: Chalk spray on glass, chalk marker, body paint (Kintsugi) — all temporary
Location: Miami Beach Convention Center — Art Basel, 2025