Negotiating Production and Labor with David Correa

Film by Juan Luis Matos

David Correa, Season Eight commissioned artist, invited audiences to reframe their relationship with collecting through the shared experience of The Life and Death of Bluegill Prime—a durational play that took place on May 8, 2026, under the stars on the YoungArts Plaza in Miami.

Describing the history of Bluegill Prime, a failed 1962 U.S. nuclear test attempt that ended in disaster, Correa reimagines the bomb as a martyr protagonist: a weapon whose malfunction is interpreted as an act of protest. Embodying rebellion through non-functionality, what happens when we reject our assigned roles?

Sincere thank you to the cast of The Life and Death of Bluegill Prime:
Carlos de la Nuez 
Abhinav Chatterjee 
Filio Galvez 
Lucas Snook 
Sezenio Calvo

And, overwhelming gratitude to our community partners QUEUE Gallery and Tunnel Projects, and to New World School of the Arts, Mitchell Wolfson Sr Foundation, and YoungArts, for generously supporting the making of this project.

Learn more about the artist’s practice and The Life and Death of Bluegill Prime in the thoughtful essay by Lance Minto-Strouse.