The Living Bucentaur – An Artistic Procession

The Living Bucentaur is a large-scale collective art performance marking the MIT School of Architecture + Planning’s move into the historic Metropolitan Storage Warehouse. In 1916, when MIT moved from Boston to Cambridge, the Institute staged its crossing of the Charles as a pageant aboard a Venetian-inspired ceremonial barge called the Bucentaur. Now, 110 years later, the boat returns on land, formed by more than 250 students, faculty and staff walking together.

Expect sailcloth costumes, jellyfish umbrellas, water-bucket drums, giant horns, clapping books, flags and hand-cut oyster lace.

The procession begins at 77 Massachusetts Avenue and moves past the MIT Student Center and Kresge Auditorium before continuing to the historic Metropolitan Storage Warehouse, a Cambridge landmark dating to 1894 that has now been transformed through adaptive reuse as the school’s new home.

The Living Bucentaur is a collective artwork conceived and directed by artist and MIT professor Azra Aksamija, developed with her students and created collaboratively with the MIT School of Architecture + Planning community.