The 2020–21 AURORA Biennial will open on November 6th, 2020, with the world-premiere of Ssalute, a new work by Marina Rosenfeld. Comprised of a drive-through sound installation and performance occupying the upper floors of Headington Companies’ LAZ parking garage at 1200 Ross Ave, Dallas 75202 (ENTRANCE AT SAN JACINTO STREET) in downtown Dallas and a large-scale public billboard (1408 S. Akard St., Dallas 75215), Rosenfeld’s new work is oriented around the spectator as a driver or passenger, enclosed in the protective skin of their vehicle. Each visitor’s entry into the work is met by an invitation of sorts—into publicness and mutual presence—in the form of a personal salute offered by a live trumpet player, a role shared by notable Dallas-based musicians Raquel Samayoa, Chris Doty and Freddie Jones.

As drivers ascend the labyrinthine architecture of the parking garage, this thickly amplified and augmented salutation follows them, echoing through the structure until they emerge onto the roof and the ambient sound of the city.

In a separate location, passersby may have already encountered an image of Ssalute in the form of a billboard, suggesting a visual form to the experience that leaves space equally for presence, intimacy and alienation. A speculative work in relation to both experience and infrastructure—substituting the vacant parking garage and its radical acoustic treatment for actual civic gathering space—Rosenfeld’s work is an enigmatic public proposal in time of widespread isolation.