THE CUBAN MATRIX ARIAMNA CONTINO ALEJANDRO FIGUEREDO DIAZ-PERERA JORGE OTERO ESCOBAR DIANA FONSECA ALEXANDER HERNANDEZ TONY LABAT WITH JUAN CARLOS ALOM FRANCISCO MASO REYNIER LEYVA NOVO ESTERIO SEGURA 3320 Civic Center Drive Torrance, CA 90503 Director/Head Curator Max Presneill Assistant Curator Benjamin Tippin Assistant Curator Melissa Tran PH 310.618.6340 EM TorranceArtMuseum@TorranceCA.gov WEB TorranceArtMuseum.com Cultural Services Division Eve Rappoport, Manager Michael Field, Senior Supervisor Debbie Collins, Secretary Torrance City Council Heidi Ann Ashcraft Tim Goodrich Mike Griffiths Milton S. Herring, I Geoff Rizzo Kurt Weideman Rebecca Poirier, City Clerk Dana Cortez, City Treasurer LeRoy J. Jackson, City Manager Mary Giordano, Assistant City Manager John R. Jones, Community Services Director Cultural Arts Commission Greg Taylor, Chair Toni Sargent, Vice Chair Judith Gibson Dale A. Korman Lynda Kraemer Anil S. Muhammed The Torrance Art Museum is a program of the Cultural Services Division, Community Services Department. Creating and Enriching Community Through People, Programs and Partnerships. 2 © 2017, The Torrance Art Museum For more information about the City of Torrance and other programming at the Torrance Cultural Arts Center, go to www.TorranceCA.gov or call 310.328.5310. Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA is a far-reaching and ambitious exploration of Latin American and Latino art in dialogue with Los Angeles. Supported by grants from the Getty Foundation, Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA takes place from September 2017 through January 2018 at more than 70 cultural institutions across Southern California, from Los Angeles to Palm Springs, and from San Diego to Santa Barbara. Pacific Standard Time is an initiative of the Getty. 3 Founded in 2011, the SUR:biennial seeks to explore the complex notions of globalization and exchange that takes place in the ambiguous borderlands between Los Angeles and the broader ‘South.’ The 4th SUR:biennial focuses around seven venues in Los Angeles: Cerritos College Art Gallery, Eastside International (ESXLA), Long Beach City College Art Gallery, Manhattan Beach Art Center, Rio Hondo College Art Gallery, Torrance Art Museum, and Whittier Historical Society & Museum. The independently-curated biennial exhibitions showcase recent and newly-commisioned works by local and international artists who have been influenced by the cultures and artistic traditions of Mexico, Central & South America, and the Caribbean. Unlike many recent exhibitions of Latinx, Mexican, Mexican-American, or Chicanx art, the SUR:biennial seeks to explore notions of globalization and exchange that take place in the ambiguous geographical, cultural, and artistic borderlands between Los Angeles and “the South,” regardless of the artist’s nationality. 4 5 INTRO The Cuban Matrix is an ambitious project featuring an in-depth look at contemporary Cuban artwork, with emphasis on digital media exchange culture. The focus of the exhibition is the offline digital “mercado” (marketplace) sharing culture that has arisen around the phenomenon of “El Paquete Semanal”: a weekly terabyte packet of entertainment, downloaded web pages and information that is carried into Cuba, shared and consumed throughout Cuban society. This object-oriented cultural economy, a mix of entrepreneurship, cultural curation and community building, was precisely the conversation that the project had begun to generate. It is from this process that the exhibition as it is now began its journey. The works in this exhibition are tempered by limited access to the virtual information systems that most of the developed world takes for granted. The artists and their works are shaped by these limitations and the cultural responses that grew to meet them. Though Cuba has, albeit recently, introduced public wi-fi hotspots in parks, which have transformed into spaces of gathering and exchange, and even more recently granted private internet access connections, direct access to the global Internet is still harshly limited: both in economic and geographic terms. Public wi-fi is expensive and slow, with speeds that preclude the sharing of larger files and streaming media. While the high-speed, constantly available information stream that forms the hallmark of contemporary societies in the global north is not at this time available to the people of Cuba, “El Paquete Semanal” forms a unique and ingenious workaround. It is bought cheaply and 6 distributed from hand to hand, shared and downloaded. Containing everything from entertainment to software to international news, “El Paquete” acts as an object that mediates Cuba and the rest of the world. The works comprising The Cuban Matrix explore aspects of this mediation. The works of an older generation navigate objects and spaces of community and protest, precursors to the digital gathering spaces of resistance. Other works exemplify the historical Cuban cosmopolitanism that through “El Paquete” is heightened and enriched. Cubans, perhaps even more so than many other American peoples, are deeply aware of the world they inhabit. This awareness and cultural facility persists despite the economic isolation Cuba has endured throughout the last half of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first. Artworks in the show reflect the expansion of the digital “mercado” in Cuban society: access to software, globo-political awareness, the exchange of ideas and the international art community. We have taken this exhibition as an opportunity to talk about a Cuba that is not often discussed: a digital Cuba. This moment in Cuba, now, is rife with uncertainty – about normalization of international relations, the future of the Cuban identity, their own political future and much more. But beyond that, a Cuba that is navigating two distinct temporal realities: the reality of economic isolation – the blockade or embargo – and that of instant communication and interminable velocity. It is “El Paquete” that forms an intersection between these two. It is both the metaphor and the uniquely Cuban exegesis of their time and place. INTRO The Cuban Matrix es un proyecto ambicioso con una mirada en profundidad a la obra contemporánea cubana, con énfasis en la cultura de intercambio de medios digitales. El enfoque de la exposición es la cultura compartida de mercado digital sin conexión que ha surgido alrededor del fenómeno de “El Paquete Semanal”: un paquete terabyte semanal de entretenimiento, páginas web descargadas e información que se transporta a Cuba, compartida y consumida en toda la sociedad cubana. Esta economía cultural orientada a objetos, una mezcla de emprendimiento, cultura y construcción comunitaria, fue precisamente la conversación que el proyecto había comenzado a generar. Es a partir de este proceso que la exposición tal como es ahora comienza su viaje. Las obras de esta exposición se ven atenuadas por el limitado acceso a los sistemas de información virtual que la mayoría del mundo desarrollado da por sentado. Los artistas y sus obras están moldeados por estas limitaciones y las respuestas culturales que crecieron para satisfacerlas. Aunque Cuba, recientemente, introdujo puntos de acceso público en los parques, que se han transformado en espacios de recolección e intercambio y, más recientemente, se han concedido conexiones privadas de acceso a Internet, el acceso directo a Internet global sigue siendo duramente limitado: en términos económicos y geográficos. El wi-fi público es costoso y lento, con velocidades que impiden compartir archivos más grandes y medios de transmisión. Mientras que el flujo de información de alta velocidad y constantemente disponible que forma el sello distintivo de las sociedades contemporáneas en el norte global no está disponible en este momento para el pueblo de Cuba, “El Paquete Semanal” forma una solución única e ingeniosa. Se compra barato y se distribuye de mano en mano, compartida y descargada. Contiene todo, desde entretenimiento a software a noticias internacionales, “El Paquete” actúa como un objeto mediador de Cuba y del resto del mundo. Las obras que componen The Cuban Matrix exploran aspectos de esta mediación. Los trabajos de una generación más vieja navegan objetos y espacios de comunidad y protesta, precursores de los espacios digitales de encuentro de resistencia. Otras obras ejemplifican el cosmopolitismo histórico cubano que a través de “El Paquete” se acentúa y enriquece. Los cubanos, tal vez incluso más que muchos otros pueblos americanos, son profundamente conscientes del mundo que habitan. Esta conciencia y facilidad cultural persiste a pesar del aislamiento económico que ha sufrido Cuba a lo largo de la última mitad del siglo XX y principios del XXI. Las obras reflejan la expansión del “mercado” digital en la sociedad cubana: el acceso al software, la conciencia globo-política, el intercambio de ideas y la comunidad artística internacional. Hemos tomado esta exposición como una oportunidad para hablar de una Cuba que no se discute a menudo: una Cuba digital. Este momento en Cuba está lleno de incertidumbre: la normalización de las relaciones internacionales, el futuro de la identidad cubana, su propio futuro político y muchos más. Pero más allá de eso, una Cuba que navega dos realidades temporales distintas: la realidad del aislamiento económico – el bloqueo o embargo – y la de la comunicación instantánea y la velocidad interminable. Es “El Paquete” que forma una intersección entre estos dos. Es a la vez la metáfora y la exégesis exclusivamente cubana de su tiempo y lugar. 7 ARIAMNA C ON T I N O & ALEX ANDER HE R N A N DE Z 8 9 ARTIST STATEMENT Ariamna Contino & Alexander Hernandez The public information generated and socialized from the internet, newsreels, newspapers, and magazines are implemented as aesthetic material in order to elaborate a group of works with a very attractive visual quality. However, their themes, which are based on real graphic data or infographics on drug trafficking, economy, migration, war, religious conflicts, social and global problems, generate a key to the ambiguity between image and content. Hence the intentional use of perforated paper as its support. In this way, layers of content and readings are generated that allow the work to go beyond the cleanliness and beauty of the close-ups, to delve into topical issues. Through these pieces, which may well work as well individually as they do a part of a larger set, new world maps are created; some of which have their cipher in geometric abstraction. Topics such as neoliberal globalization, murder rates in the United States, brain theft, or the world production of nuclear energy, to cite just a few examples, are what we are engaging in this particular instance. These works exemplify and summarize the practice that we have been developing with this series for the last few years, from the content selected to the formal solutions in which they were conceived. In these art works we explore the relationship between ethics and aesthetics, ambiguity and objectivity. Art and social function. DECLARACIÓN DEL ARTISTA Ariamna Contino & Alexander Hernandez La información pública generada y socializada desde internet, noticiarios, periódicos y revistas son implementados como material estético para elaborar un grupo de obras con una visualidad muy atractiva. Sin embargo sus temas, basados en datos reales gráficos o infografías sobre sobre narcotráfico, economía, migración, conflictos bélicos, religiosos, problemáticas sociales y globales, generan una clave de ambigüedad entre imagen y contenido. De ahí la intencionalidad de utilizar el papel calado como su soporte. De esta forma se generan capas de contenidos y de lecturas que permiten ir más allá de la limpieza y belleza de los primeros planos, para adentrarse en tópicos de suma actualidad. A través de estas piezas, que bien pueden funcionar individualmente, o ser parte de un conjunto mayor, se crean nuevos mapas mundiales, algunos de las cuales tiene una clave en la abstracción geométrica. Tópicos como la globalización neoliberal, índices de asesinatos en Estados Unidos, Robo de cerebro o la producción mundial de energía nuclear, por solo citar algunos ejemplos, son los que presentamos en este caso en particular. En ellos queda resumido el trabajo que hemos estado desarrollando con esta serie desde hace unos años atrás. Desde los contenidos seleccionados, hasta las soluciones formales en las que fueron concebidas. En estas obras exploramos la relación que existe entre: ética y estética, Ambigüedad y objetividad. Arte y función social. 10 Ariamna Contino & Alex Hernandez Comparación entre los percentajes de deportaciones de migrantes y creeimiento laboral mensual en los Estados Unidos. 2013 – 2015. (Comparison between the percentages of deportations of migrants and monthly labor growth in the United States. 2013 – 2015) From the series Miltancia Estetica (Aesthetic Militancy) 2014 – 2017; Draft paper and industrial paint on glass; Dimensions variable 11 Ariamna Contino & Alex Hernandez Indice de globalización de países Latinamericanos (Chile, México, Perú, Colombia, Brasil, Ecuador, Argentina y Venezuela). (Index of globalization of Latin American countries (Chile, Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, Argentina and Venezuela). From the series Miltancia Estetica (Aesthetic Militancy) 2014 – 2017; Draft paper and industrial paint on glass; Dimensions variable 12 Ariamna Contino & Alex Hernandez Estados norteamericanos donde la marihuana es legal, aceptada para usos medicos o implica minima sentencia policial.” (American states where marijuana is legal, accepted for medical purposes or incurs minimal police sentencing.) From the series Miltancia Estetica (Aesthetic Militancy) 2014 – 2017; Draft paper and industrial paint on glass; Dimensions variable 13 Ariamna Contino & Alex Hernandez Cifras de migrantes que represitan mano de obra calificada: científicos, ingenieros, medicos e ínformaticos.” (Figures of migrants representing skilled labor: scientists, engineers, doctors and informatics.) From the series Miltancia Estetica (Aesthetic Militancy) 2014 – 2017; Draft paper and industrial paint on glass; Dimensions variable 14 Ariamna Contino & Alex Hernandez Localización geográfica de los Paraisos fiscales en el Caribe. (Geographic locations of tax havens in the Caribbean.) From the series Miltancia Estetica (Aesthetic Militancy) 2014 – 2017; Draft paper and industrial paint on glass; Dimensions variable 15 Ariamna Contino & Alex Hernandez Economía Latinamericano comparación del PIB del 2015 con las prediciones del 2016. (The Latin American economy comparing the GDP of 2015 with the predictions of 2016.) From the series Miltancia Estetica (Aesthetic Militancy) 2014 – 2017; Draft paper and industrial paint on glass; Dimensions variable 16 Ariamna Contino & Alex Hernandez Exportaciones e importaciones de bienes entre Cuba y Venezuela, 2008 – 2012. (Exports and imports of goods between Cuba and Venezuela, 2008 - 2012.) From the series Miltancia Estetica (Aesthetic Militancy) 2014 – 2017; Draft paper and industrial paint on glass; Dimensions variable 17 Ariamna Contino & Alex Hernandez Distribución de las energía nuclear y cantidad de reactors en los paises de mayor produccion. (Estados Unidos, Francia, Japón, Rusia, Corea del Sur, Alemania, Canadá, Ucrania, China y Gran Bretaña) (Distribution of nuclear energy and quantity of reactors in the countries of greatest production. (United States, France, Japan, Russia, South Korea, Germany, Canada, Ukraine, China and Great Britain). From the series Miltancia Estetica (Aesthetic Militancy) 2014 – 2017; Draft paper and industrial paint on glass; Dimensions variable 18 ALEJANDRO FIGUEREDO DIAZ-PERERA 19 “DISSONANCE”, 2015 Alejandro Figueredo Diaz-Perera In this two-channel video and audio work, the voices of Assata Shakur and Tania Bruguera reveal how activists are implicated in the complexity of Cuba’s new situation after the announcement on December, 2014 of the normalization of relations with the USA. Bruguera is a Cuban performance artist whose works challenge the Cuban government. This has caused her activity within her home country to be strictly limited. Shakur was leader of the Black Liberation Army and a member of the former Black Panther Party. She fled the U.S. in 1984 to live in political asylum in Cuba. Shakur embraces the freedom that she finds in Cuba, a freedom that is now threatened by the new relations between the countries. Conversely, Bruguera exposes the inequities and lack of freedom in Cuba. Dissonance incorporates audio from two sources: a phone call Bruguera made to her sister in January 2015, after Bruguera was arrested and banned from performing a piece where she intended to place a microphone in Havana’s Revolutionary Square; and Shakur’s reading of her letter written to the Pope in 1998. In May 2013, the F.B.I. made Shakur the first woman on its list of Most Wanted Terrorists, causing her to “drop out of sight” in Cuba since then. Both Bruguera and Shakur have been hailed as freedom fighters but, by their respective country’s definition, they are political dissidents. 20 Alejandro Figueredo Diaz-Perera On the Contrary 2013 Object installation consisting of one oscillating fan in the corner of a room 21 Cuba: At the death line, Santiago, where prisoners were shot, around 1890-1900, © Griffith & Griffith. 22 Alejandro Figueredo Diaz-Perera Dissonance 2015 TV Monitors, kneeling pads, audio, subtitles 23 JORGE OTERO ESCOBAR 24 “ESTAMPIDA (STAMPEDE)”, 2014 Jorge Otero Escobar This image is a documentation of performance, where the artist plays the role of a “guajiro” (name used to describe the rural population in Cuba) who listens to the ground. The work speaks of migration processes, identity and rootlessness, the resistance of the so-called peripheral cultures confronting phenomena’s such as globalization. Each country has its own myths, legends, and beliefs that enrich its collective and most common imagery. The artist Jorge Otero has one potential historical interpretation of the origin of the word “guajiro” (name used to describe the rural population in Cuba). This word is said to come from the expression “War Hero”, which U.S. soldiers stationed in Cuba generally used to describe Cubans with a hat and machete during the Cuban War of Independence. From this legendary reference, the artist presents a prototype of the Cuban peasant, which defines his universe and creates a dialogue describing the peasants’ social reality. From a critical and reflexive stance the artist deals with the problems inherent in contemporary society. In this regard, the hat, the machete, the guayabera, and handkerchief all become symbols or objects whose qualities transcend identity and thus become elements of structure. These items are re-contextualized into a strong symbolism which creates various interpretations reflecting on ancestral themes such as power relations, identity, the generational social role to be played by the individual, the historical development of that role, and the challenge of surviving in a turbulent and hostile environment. These works of art, in addition to their authenticity, are distinguished by the sophistication of their complex representations, as well as their exquisite and formal aesthetic, which reflect the artist’s ideas. These ideas are summarized by the artist himself, when he describes the work as a symbol that represents the multiple facets of the everyday life of the common man, contrasted with a warmonger’s nuanced reality of sly struggles and truces. He is the main character of my work, a hero from previous battles; a survivor who is both war hero and common man all in one. 25 Jorge Otero Escobar Stampede, from the series War hero 2014 Digital print 65x35.1 in / 135.0x90.0 cm 26 THE CUBAN MATRIX Benjamin Tippin The project that has become The Cuban Matrix began as a series of conversations with my TAM colleagues in late 2015 that centered on Latin American cultures of exchange. That is, we were genuinely interested in dialogues with artists and collectives that negotiated cultures of sharing—materials, like clothing and food, or cultural products, like music and art—and new aesthetic economies that emerged from these practices. We were inspired on one hand by Brazilian practices reengaging used clothing and on the other by Central American music and political engagements. As we were having these discussions we were made aware of a curious economic model named El Paquete Semanal [“The Weekly Package”] that was emerging in Cuba, coming out of their long-standing USB-exchange culture. While in the Global North, the ‘sneaker-net’ cultures had, for the most part, run their course by the end of the early 2000’s, in Cuba it was and still is the most widespread way of communicating information and culture. Additionally, it has taken on a language and practice of resistance: subversive posters, pamphlets and music are all spread hand-to-hand via small and easily concealable USB drives. El Paquete Semanal is a weekly, curated selection of international cultural errata and became major international news around late 2015 because its exponential growth and expansion were occurring within a Cuban society rife with low incomes and even lower internet access. It was, in the words of some news organizations, “the Cuban internet.” El Paquete is not merely a vulgar entertainment commodity. It can also be understood as an object oriented economy in of itself. This economic action forms a bridge between pirate culture and ‘legitimated” capitalized commodity, a bridge between outside and in, between Cuba and the world, joining Cuba to the globalized network culture. Perhaps most interestingly, El Paquete cements the link between the person and the machinic, the networked identity apparatus. It engenders a cyborg human cognitive development. There is this temptation to consider El Paquete in terms of what it contains, as one would talk about television or film. The conservative approach, following from McLuhan, considers media in their most material nature, as nothing but formal containers housing other pieces of media. In this vein, El Paquete would be like its forebears, in that a new media is invented, and as such its role is as a container for a previous media format—cinema contains photography, music, etc. And at a glance, El Paquete is just that—an archive of film, advertisements, music and applications—housed within redundant layers of file archiving apparatuses. In this way, these materials are nested, “like the layers of an onion, one format encircl[ing] another, and its media all the way down.”1 But this, I feel, is where traditional media thought fails and where El Paquete becomes a trenchant cultural object both mediating and reflecting certain trends of Cuban cultural production. It is at the intersections of these layers, the spaces where algorithms and programming languages meet to synthesize video or sound, that becomes not an expression of what Vilem Flusser would term “significant surfaces,” or two-dimensional planes with meaning embedded in it or delivered through it, (like a cinema screen or ATM window) but abstract exchanges, interfaces, produced as “the point[s] of transmission between different mediatic layers.”2 It is the navigation of these layers, this complex woven interface, that produces the most interesting aesthetic engagements of new media, and by extension, what The Cuban Matrix explores. 27 As new media scholar Alexander Galloway understands it, the interface is not just the site of exchange, “[it] is an ‘agitation’ or generative friction between different formats.” In other words, these junctures are the locus where cinema and graphical user interface inflict their histories, aesthetics and modalities upon each other. They ‘generate friction’ and produce aesthetic transformation. This friction and its concomitant results are among the most intelligible remnants of El Paquete’s influence. If I have stated it before, it is still necessary to revisit it here again. El Paquete Semanal is not some genre busting world transforming technology. Its simple economic action has been seen and will be seen on playgrounds, flea markets and throughout parts of the developing world. It is simply an entrepreneurial response to disconnection and isolation. But, perhaps those conditions, in their unique historical Cuban circumstances, are what make El Paquete one of the most important phenomenon coming out of Latin America at this time. El Paquete is interesting precisely because it forms an economic commodity exchange that engages computer mediated affect. From its origins as a contrivance of a disconnected society, a purely opportunistic media model, it stands in for the greater networked existence overtaking Cuban life and a vehicle through which it happens. Through El Paquete and its encompassed cultural economy, Cubans are engaging the era of interface, the engagement of the contemporary apparatus itself. It is the interface itself that is most prescient and transformative to Cuban art (and to global art, really). In order to explore these transformations, there are two main bodies of work that make up The Cuban Matrix. The first documents the real incorporation of these technologies into Cuban life—from architectural strategies of covert satellite dish deployment to street photography documenting the shared, communal spaces of internet access. These works explore the 28 visual impact of these new forms of communication on Cuban urban living. The second consideration of the exhibition is the way in which contemporary Cuban art enacts the technological apparatus and the language of new media. These works take on the logic of computer screens and internet marketplaces. They play with logics of selection, highlight the importance of compositing and make databases their source. Furthermore, while their works feel distinctly removed from cinematic considerations, especially the techniques of temporal montage, many of the works in the exhibition exhibit the characteristics of spatial montaging. They play with the ‘windowing’ of computer media in their presentation and reduction to pure aesthetics. These artworks do not just point to the existence of social media and computer-led engagement in Cuba but they become interfaces in of themselves. They entreat the viewer to lean into the screen, to examine and dig and uncover. If we can speak of a movie screen as always directed towards the viewer, then these works, like a computer screen, are directed away, pointing beyond.3 They overcome the simple reveal of cinema through action and incite investigation. Human-computer interaction is a powerful cultural tradition that offers its own, new ways of representing memory and experience. If, as Alejandro Diaz-Perrera put it, “Cubans love technology,” the aim of this exhibition then cannot merely reaffirm and present this “love” to an American audience. Rather this “love” and art which engages it must be understood within the regime of human-computer interaction. (Endnotes) 1 Alexander R. Galloway, The Interface Effect, (Malden: Polity, 2012), 31. 2 Galloway, The Interface Effect, 30. 3 Galloway, The Interface Effect, 25. 29 THE CUBAN MATRIX Benjamin Tippin El proyecto que se ha convertido en The Cuban Matrix comenzó como una serie de conversaciones con mis colegas de TAM a finales de 2015 que se centró en las culturas de cambio de Latino América. Es decir, estábamos realmente interesados en los diálogos con artistas y colectivos que negociaron culturas de intercambio - materiales, como ropa y alimentos, o productos culturales, como la música y el arte - y las nuevas economías estéticas que surgieron de estas prácticas. Fuimos inspirados por un lado por las prácticas brasileñas re-acoplamiento de ropa usada y por el otro por la música de Centroamérica y compromisos políticos. Ya que estábamos teniendo estas discusiones tuvimos el conocimiento de un modelo económico curioso llamado El Paquete Semanal que estaba surgiendo en Cuba, que sale de su cultura de intercambio de USB desde hace mucho tiempo. Mientras que en los países del Norte, las culturas de ‘sneakernet’, en su mayor parte, siguen su curso a finales de la década de 2000, en Cuba era y todavía es la forma más extendida de comunicación de la información y la cultura. Además, se ha adquirido un lenguaje y la práctica de la resistencia: carteles subversivos, folletos y la música son todos mano a mano a través de unidades de propagación pequeños y fácilmente ocultables USB. El paquete semanal es una selección semanal, curada de erratas cultural internacional y se convirtió en una noticia importante internacional en torno a finales de 2015 debido a su crecimiento exponencial y la expansión estaban ocurriendo dentro de una sociedad cubana plagada de bajos ingresos y el acceso a Internet aún más baja. Era, en palabras de algunas organizaciones de noticias, “la Internet cubana”. El Paquete no es meramente un producto de entretenimiento vulgar. También se puede entender como una economía orientada a objeto en sí mismo. Esta acción económica forma 30 un puente entre la cultura y el pirata mercancía capitalizado legitimado, un puente entre el exterior y interior, entre Cuba y el mundo, uniéndose a Cuba a la cultura de la red globalizada. Quizás lo más interesante, El Paquete consolida el vínculo entre la persona y el maquinista, el aparato de identidad en red. Se genera un desarrollo cognitivo humano cyborg. Existe la tentación de considerar El Paquete en términos de lo que contiene, como uno podría hablar de televisión o película. El enfoque conservador, después de McLuhan, considera los medios de comunicación en su naturaleza más material, más que los contenedores que albergan formales otras piezas de los medios de comunicación. En este orden de ideas, El Paquete sería como sus antepasados, en la que se inventó un nuevo medio, y como tal, su papel es como contenedor para un formato multimedia anterior - cine contiene fotografía, música, etc. Y de un vistazo, El Paquete es sólo eso - un archivo de película, anuncios, música y aplicaciones alojada dentro de las capas redundantes de aparatos de archivo. De esta manera, se anidan estos materiales “como las capas de una cebolla, un formato que rodea a otro, y sus medios de comunicación todo el camino hacia abajo.” [i] Pero esto, siento, es donde el pensamiento tradicional de los medios de comunicación falla y donde El Paquete se convierte en un objeto cultural mordaz tanto la mediación y que refleja ciertas tendencias de la producción cultural cubano. Es en las intersecciones de estas capas, los espacios en los algoritmos y los lenguajes de programación se reúnen para sintetizar vídeo o sonido, que no se convierte en una expresión de lo Vilem Flusser sería término “superficies significativas”, o dos planos dimensionales de significado incrustado en él o entregado a través de él, (como una pantalla de cine o ventana ATM) pero intercambios abstractos, las interfaces, producido como los “punto[s] de la transmisión entre las diferentes capas mediáticos.” [ii] Es la navegación de estas capas, esta interfaz complejo tejido, que produce los compromisos estéticos más interesantes de los nuevos medios, y por extensión, lo que The Cuban Matrix explora. Como el académico de nuevos medios Alexander Galloway entiende, la interfaz no es sólo el sitio de intercambio, “es una ‘agitación’ o fricción generativa entre diferentes formatos.” En otras palabras, estos momentos son el lugar donde el cine y gráfica de usuario interfaz de infligir sus historias, la estética y las modalidades de una sobre la otra. Generan fricción y producen transformación estética. Esta fricción y sus resultados concomitantes se encuentran entre los restos más inteligibles de la influencia de El Paquete. Si ya he dicho antes, todavía es necesario volver aquí de nuevo. El Paquete Semanal no es un género que revienta la tecnología que transforma el mundo. Su simple acción económica se ha visto y se ve en parques, mercados y en toda partes del mundo en desarrollo. Es simplemente una respuesta empresarial a la desconexión y el aislamiento. Pero, tal vez esas condiciones, en sus circunstancias cubanas históricos únicos, son los que hacen de El Paquete uno de los fenómenos más importantes que salen de Latino América en este momento. El Paquete es interesante precisamente porque forma un intercambio económico de mercancías que involucra el efecto mediado por ordenador. Desde sus orígenes como un artificio de una sociedad desconectada, un modelo de medios puramente oportunista, se encuentra en la mayor existencia en red adelantar la vida cubana y un vehículo a través de lo que ocurre. A través de El Paquete y su abarcada economía cultural, los cubanos están atrayendo la era de la interfaz, el compromiso del aparato contemporáneo. Es la propia interfaz que es más profético y transformador de arte cubano (y al arte global, en realidad). Con el fin de explorar estas transformaciones, hay dos cuerpos principales de trabajo que conforman The Cuban Matrix. Los primeros documentos de la verdadera incorporación de estas tecnologías en la vida cubana - desde las estrategias de arquitectura de despliegue antena parabólica encubierta para la fotografía de calle documentar los compartidos, espacios comunes de acceso a Internet. Estas obras exploran el impacto visual de estas nuevas formas de comunicación en la vida urbana cubana. La segunda consideración de la exposición es la forma en que el arte cubano contemporáneo promulga el aparato tecnológico y el lenguaje de los nuevos medios. Estas obras llevan en la lógica de las pantallas de ordenador y los mercados de Internet. Juegan con las lógicas de selección, resalte la importancia de la composición y hacer bases de datos de su fuente. Además, mientras que sus obras sensación claramente retirados de consideraciones cinemáticas, especialmente las técnicas de temporal montaje, muchas de las obras de la exposición presentan las características de espacial montaje. Juegan con el ‘ventanas’ de los medios informáticos, en su presentación y la reducción de la estética pura. Estas obras de arte no sólo apuntan a la existencia de medios de comunicación social y el compromiso por ordenador llevado en Cuba sino que se convierten en las interfaces de sí mismos. Ellos suplican al espectador a inclinarse a la pantalla, para examinar y excavar y descubrir. Si podemos hablar de una pantalla de cine como siempre dirigida hacia el espectador, entonces estas obras, como una pantalla de ordenador, están dirigidas distancia, apuntando más allá. [iii] Superan la sencilla revelar de cine a través de la acción y de incitar a la investigación. Interacción hombre-máquina es una poderosa tradición cultural que ofrece es propio, nuevas formas de representar la memoria y la experiencia. Si, como Alejandro Díaz-Perrera dijo, “los cubanos aman la tecnología,” el objetivo de esta muestra a continuación, no puede limitarse a reafirmar y presentar este “amor” a una audiencia americana. Más bien este “amor” y el arte que se acopla debe entenderse dentro del régimen de interacción hombre-máquina. [i] Alexander R. Galloway, The Interface Effect, (Malden: Polity, 2012), 31. [ii] Galloway, The Interface Effect, 30. [iii] Galloway, The Interface Effect, 25. 31 VALAR MORGHULIS AND JAMONADA: A BRIEF HISTORY OF ART AND TECHNOLOGY IN CUBA Joseph R. Hartman, Assistant Professor of Latinx and Latin American Studies/Art History University of Missouri-Kansas City 32 “Valar Morghulis. All men must die.” These aren’t words I expected to hear within the dusty government archives of Havana. It was a sweltering day in June of 2014, the kind you get regularly in the Caribbean. I was living in Cuba gathering archival materials on twentieth-century art, housed in a beautiful refurbished Spanish colonial mansion. A colleague from the Instituto de Historia had invited me to join her and other employees for lunch at the office cafeteria. I politely smiled, as they presented a platter of government-approved food stuff. “They call it ‘jamonada,’” my friend joked, “as in nada de jamón (Nothing-of-Ham).” We changed the topic, moving on to universal conversation material: family, work and, as it turned out, HBO’s Game of Thrones. That’s how Arya Stark’s prayer for revenge came up. At first I thought my comprehension of Spanish was to blame. ¿Valar qué? But no. I heard right. The Cuban archivists were talking about that week’s delivery of “El Paquete Semanal,” a terabyte collection of digital media distributed on the black market as a substitute for the internet. What’s more, I had to plug my ears. They were ahead, and I didn’t want any spoilers. On an island where only 2 percent of 11 million people have access to the internet daily, it surprised me that my Cuban colleagues were so aware of the goings on in Westeros. As a historian of Cuban art and culture, though, it shouldn’t have. Today Cuba may be a “third/second world” or “developing” nation, but it has always been at the forefront of culture and technology in the Western hemisphere. This is a strange and exciting historical position, which sheds light on contemporary Cuban artwork and its relationship to the digital media age. The offline digital marketplace delivered through “El Paquete” embodies that legacy. Plastic flash drives jammed into laptop USB ports open thresholds into other worlds: Make-up tips, Taylor Swift, what’s for sale on Cuba’s Craiglist, and the latest HBO miniseries. If today, “El Paquete” is a symbol of Cuba’s resilience in the face of the U.S. embargo and its own government’s censorship, it also points to the island’s long history at the vanguard of culture and modernization. In the colonial period, Havana was called “The Key to the New World.” Cuba and especially its capital city were central to the economy of the Spanish Empire. The Spanish silver fleet, brimming with riches from Asia, the Andes and other parts of Latin America, gathered in Havana’s bay before setting sail to Seville. By the mid-eighteenth century, Havana was the crossroads of the Atlantic. It was huge, on scale with Lima and Mexico City, and far surpassing the meager populations of New York and Boston at the time. The island of Cuba was the key to centralized power in an empire where the sun never set, uniting the Iberian Peninsula to the Spanish Philippines and America’s terra firma. The British certainly saw the importance of the island’s capital when they decided to take Havana by force in 1762. They introduced Cuba to North American markets then, a relationship that blossomed and eventually soured on an epic scale. Spain ceded the entire Florida Peninsula to get their key back. It was too important to let go. In comparison to other holdings of the Spanish Empire, Cuba enjoyed special access to new cultural advances, thanks to its location within transatlantic trade circuits and its proximity to the United States. Some innovations were less positive than others. In response to French refugees fleeing Haiti (then Saint-Dominique) after the slave revolution led by Toussaint L’Ouverture in 1791, Cuban planters adapted an economic model based on large plantations, sugar refining and the exploitation of black bodies. Cuba’s African slave populations nearly doubled. And the island experienced a sugar boom that lasted from the 1790s into the 1880s. Public works, infrastructural projects and new technologies followed In 1837, Cuba became the first nation in Latin America and the Caribbean to build a steam railway. The technology wouldn’t reach Spain until over a decade later. They named Havana’s train station, the first in the Spanish Empire, “Villanueva” after the title of a Cuban-born count. Not long after in 1840, Cuba became one of the first places in the Western hemisphere to 33 advertise the sale of daguerreotypes—a novel and technically advanced photographic process of the age involving mercury fumes and silvered copper plates. A shop along the commercial street of Obispo, called “El buen gusto de París,” advertised the sale of the new technology in Havana that year. Already in the early nineteenth century, U.S. tourists, like hurricanes, arrived to Cuba on a yearly basis in search of sun, sensation and commerce. Cuba imported U.S. goods and the United States offered a major marketplace for Cuban agricultural exports like sugar and tobacco. The relationship between the two countries was so close that slave owners in Cuba and the United States supported annexation. Thomas Jefferson and John Quincy Adams both expressed a desire to absorb Cuba into the Manifest Destiny of the American Union. When the U.S. failed to purchase Cuba in secret meetings with a war-torn Spain in 1896, they invaded the island under pretense of defense after the bombing of the U.S.S. Maine in 1898. U.S. intervention allowed the colonial system to continue in an altered form. The Platt Amendment, attached to Cuba’s first constitution of 1901, guaranteed U.S. influence over Cuba’s domestic and foreign policies; leased Guantanamo Bay indefinitely; and granted the American Empire the right to intervene militarily if it deemed Cuba’s leadership unfit. The result was a massive influx of U.S. businesses, consumer goods, arts, and technologies. Cuban strongmen like Gerardo Machado and Fulgencio Batista worked with U.S. big business to maintain the island at the forefront of modernism in the region. Under Machado, Pan American Airlines began their first international flights to Havana in 1928. A major highway, connecting U.S. Highway 1 to Havana via ferry, opened in 34 1932. And with Batista after Machado’s deposal, Cuba became a hotbed of gambling, tourism, and a sea of Fords, rivaling the economic success of any major city in the hemisphere during the 1940s and ‘50s. Then came the Cuban Revolution of 1959. The Platt Amendment was abrogated in 1934. But Cuba’s economy remained largely in the hands of U.S. banks and foreign interests until Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Camilio Cienfuegos and their bearded comrades returned to liberate the island. They expelled foreign corporations like Bacardi, Coca-Cola and Hershey; and ushered in a new era, for better or worse, of socialist advances. A strategic alliance with the Soviet Union brought oil, Russian cars and planes, and even (for a brief and frightening moment) nuclear weapons to Cuba. Under socialism, Cuba’s arts entered a new age, too. But, as with technology, it was also a continuation of a longer tradition, embodied first in the material cultures left by the island’s decimated indigenous populations and then by African visual practices brought to Cuba by the slave trade. A distinctly European contribution came later with Havana’s prestigious Art Academy of San Alejandro, established in 1818, as one of the oldest of its kind in the Americas. Cuban artists trained at the school, including Wifredo Lam and Tania Bruguera, earned acclaim for their works dealing with internationalism and local cultures in Cuba during the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. The 1980s saw the rise of the New Art Movement comprised of Cuban artists born and raised after the Revolution. Generous public funding, art education surpassing the world standard and an indoctrinate sense of the social applicability of art provided a fertile environment for Cuban artists. The Cuban state’s patronage of the arts offered an alternative to the capitalist art market, which often degraded and ignored artists of Latin America. With the support of Cuba’s socialism, the New Art Movement engaged international trends in art (conceptualism, minimalism, pop art, earth works) through the lens of Cuban culture (African, Eurasian, and indigenous heritages, local humor known as el choteo, and nationalism). To be sure, though, revolutionary Cuba was and has never been a creative utopia. Censorship and self-censorship have remained unresolved problems, evidenced most recently by the detention and arrest of dissident artists like Tania Bruguera and Danilo Maldonado Machado, otherwise known as El Sexto. Already in 1961, Fidel Castro made the stakes clear to Cuba’s creative class: “Within the revolution, everything. Against the revolution, nothing.” The repressiveness of the state worsened even more so after the end of the USSR in 1989, which resulted in an economic collapse known as “The Special Period.” The 1990s saw a rise of political fundamentalism alongside a paradoxical opening of Cuba to tourism. Cuban artists responded to these pressures first by withdrawal and then with a renewed sense of purpose, using art as a way to debate the social circumstances of the nation. Once more, with President Barack Obama and Raúl Castro’s announcement of the rapprochement in 2014, things have been changing in Cuba. And despite the Trump administration’s current retrograde policies, Cubans themselves have continued to engage the world. The revolutionary model of subsidy and education for the arts, coupled with the island’s history of technological prowess and cultural adaptiveness in the face of adversity, has created a new generation of artists at the vanguard of innovation. Global advances in technology continue to have a profound influence on the process of art making in Cuba, as it was from the beginning. Today the relationship between art and technology more often emerges out of everyday solutions, addressing the island’s scarcity of resources. With the U.S. trade embargo of 1962 and then the Special Period of the 1990s, Cubans have learned to navigate around material limitations. The Miamibased Cuban artist and designer, Ernesto Oroza, once used the phrase “technological disobedience” to describe the innovative terms with which Cuban citizens engage arts and technology in the twenty-first century. From old Fords retrofitted with Toyota engines to bicycles converted into motorcycles to offline digital media distributed across the island: Cuban citizens have found innumerable ways to resolve (resolver) their daily needs through artful uses of technology. Contemporary Cuban artists, often with the support of the state, have led the charge in finding aesthetic and practical solutions to quotidian problems. A case in point comes in the recent installation of free highspeed wifi in the sculpture studios of the Cuban artist Alexis Leiva Machado, better known as Kcho. Partnering with Google, the Cuban artist, famous for his sculpture’s depicting boats, announced the project during Obama’s visit to the island in 2016. Kcho, a close friend of the Castro brothers and an active member of the Communist Party, has enjoyed the blessings of the state more than most. But other Havana-trained artists less closely aligned with the Cuban government have had equal success, despite a paucity of resources on the island. Josuhe H. Pagliery, a graduate of the Art Academy of San Alejandro, and Johann H. Armenteros, trained in computer programming at the University of Havana, are testament to the Cuban state’s model of subsidy and education, as well as the independence and 35 innovations of Cuba’s newest generation of artists. Originally trained to create state-sponsored video games, the two recently designed a gorgeous 2D independent platformer called “Savior,” the first of its kind in Cuba. Non-profits in Cuba and the United States have funded the video game, slated for release in 2018. Thanks to “El Paquete” and Cuba’s offline digital marketplace, the artists drew from titles like “Super Mario” and “Final Fantasy” as inspiration for their design. In the international art scene, we see a similar ideology of resolviendo through “technological disobedience,” whether in the soundscapes of Cuban artist Glenda Leon; the feats of engineering and aestheticism displayed in the iconic works of Los Carpinteros; the many community-based art projects of the 2015 Havana Biennial; or in the multimedia and digital works of the artists featured today in the Torrance Art Museum’s The Cuban Matrix exhibition. The photography, installations, and digital works of Ariamna Contino, Alejandro Figueredo Diaz-Perera, Jorge Otero Escobar, Diana Fonseca, Alexander Hernandez, Tony Labat and Juan Carlos Alom, Francisco Maso, Reynier Leyva Novo and Esterio Segura each display, in unique ways, the island’s deeper history of engaging international culture and technologies on Cuban terms. We see this history in the digital photographic documentation of Jorge Otero Escobar, for instance, and his performance of exile and cultural displacement embodied in the figure of the Cuban peasant (guajiro), ear bent to the streets of New York City. We see it in the aestheticization of statistics in the works of Ariamna Contino, which re-humanize the tragedies of forced migration and war otherwise reduced to facts and figures. So too, it appears in the video art of Diana Fonseca, as moving images 36 of commonplace objects and experiences reveal a tension between desire and lack in contemporary Cuban society. And the list goes on. Outside viewers might be startled by the innovative, and sometimes transgressive, uses of technology by the newest generation of Cuban artists displayed here. Their artworks attempt, in Cuban terms, to resolve or at least address cultural problems faced across the globe as a result of increased modernization, climate change, and international trade. Their works plumb the depths of Cuban society, the aftermath of globalization, and the psychological and emotional lives of the artists themselves. But we shouldn’t be so surprised to see the cultural and technological sophistication of these artists. For that is the result of a long history of art and technology in Cuba. We might call this the underlying structure of the Cuban Matrix, encapsulated for me by a summer-time discussion of Game of Thrones over a platter of jamonada in an old colonial mansion. VALAR MORGHULIS Y JAMONADA: BREVE HISTORIA DEL ARTE Y LA TECNOLOGÍA EN CUBA Profesor Asistente de Estudios Latinxs y Latinoamericanos / Historia del Arte Universidad de Missouri-Kansas City “Valar Morghulis. Todos los hombres deben morir.” Estas no son palabras que esperaba escuchar en los polvorientos archivos gubernamentales de La Habana. Fue un día sofocante en junio de 2014, característico en el Caribe. Estaba en Cuba reuniendo materiales de archivo sobre el arte del siglo XX, alojados en una hermosa y reformada mansión colonial. Una colega del Instituto de Historia me había invitado a reunirse con ella y otros empleados para almorzar en la cafetería de la oficina. Cortésmente sonreí mientras presentaban un plato de comida aprobada por el gobierno. “Lo llaman ‘jamonada’, como en ‘nada de jamón’.” Cambiamos el tema, pasando a material de conversación universal: familia, trabajo y, por casualidad, 37 Game of Thrones. Así surgió la oración de venganza de Arya Stark. Al principio pensé que mi comprensión del español no era buena. ¿Qué? Pero no. Había oído bien. Los archivistas cubanos hablaron de la entrega de esa semana de «El Paquete Semanal», una colección terabyte de medios digitales distribuidos en el mercado negro como un sustituto de Internet. Lo que es más, tuve que tapar mis oídos: Ellos estaban por delante en las series, y yo no quería ningún saboteador. En una isla donde sólo el 2 por ciento de 11 millones de personas tienen acceso a Internet todos los días, me sorprendió que mis colegas cubanos estuvieran tan conscientes de lo que ocurría en Westeros. Sin embargo, como historiador del arte y la cultura cubana, no debería estarlo. Hoy Cuba puede ser una nación debatiblemente del “tercer / segundo mundo” o “en desarrollo”, pero siempre ha estado a la vanguardia de la cultura y la tecnología en el hemisferio occidental. Esta es una extraña y emocionante posición histórica, que arroja luz sobre la obra artística contemporánea cubana y su relación con la era de los medios digitales. El mercado digital sin necesidad de conexión entregado a través de “El Paquete” encarna ese legado. Las unidades flash de plástico atascadas en los puertos USB de los portátiles abren los umbrales a otros mundos: consejos de maquillaje, Taylor Swift, lo que está a la venta en Craiglist de Cuba y la última miniserie de HBO. Si hoy “El Paquete” es un símbolo de la resiliencia de Cuba ante el embargo de Estados Unidos y la censura de su propio gobierno, también señala la larga historia de la isla a la vanguardia de la cultura y la modernización. En la época colonial, La Habana fue llamada “La Llave del Nuevo Mundo”. Cuba y especialmente su ciudad capital 38 fueron centrales para la economía del Imperio Español. La flota naval española, repleta de riquezas procedentes de Asia, los Andes y otras partes de América Latina, se reunia en la bahía de La Habana antes de embarcarse a Sevilla. A mediados del siglo XVIII, La Habana era la encrucijada del Atlántico. Era enorme, a escala con Lima y Ciudad de México, y superaba con creces a las escasas poblaciones de Nueva York y Boston en ese momento. La isla de Cuba fue la clave del poder centralizado en un Imperio donde nunca se ponía el sol, uniendo la Península Ibérica a las Filipinas españolas y la tierra firme de América. Los británicos sin duda entendieron la importancia de la capital de la isla cuando decidieron tomar La Habana por la fuerza en 1762. Introdujeron a Cuba a los mercados norteamericanos de entonces, una relación que floreció y eventualmente se agrió en una escala épica. España cedió toda la península de la Florida para recuperar su clave. Era demasiado importante para dejarla ir. En comparación con otras posesiones del imperio español, Cuba disfrutó de un acceso especial a nuevos avances culturales, gracias a su ubicación dentro de los circuitos comerciales transatlánticos y a su proximidad a los Estados Unidos. Algunas innovaciones fueron menos positivas que otras. En respuesta a los refugiados franceses que huían de Haití (antes Saint-Dominique) después de la revolución esclavista encabezada por Toussaint L’Ouverture en 1791, los plantadores cubanos adaptaron un modelo económico basado en grandes plantaciones, refinado de azúcar y explotación de cuerpos negros. Las poblaciones de esclavos africanos en Cuba casi se duplicaron. Y la isla experimentó un auge de azúcar que duró desde la década de 1790 hasta la década de 1880. Siguieron obras públicas, proyectos de infraestructura y nuevas tecnologías. En 1837, Cuba se convirtió en la primera nación en América Latina y el Caribe en construir un ferrocarril a vapor. La tecnología no llegaría a España hasta más de una década después. Nombraron a la estación de La Habana, la primera en el imperio español, “Villanueva”, honrando el título de un conde cubano. No mucho después de 1840, Cuba se convirtió en uno de los primeros lugares en el hemisferio occidental en anunciar la venta de daguerrotipos, un proceso fotográfico nuevo y técnicamente avanzado de la época, con humos de mercurio y placas de cobre plateadas. Una tienda a lo largo de la calle comercial de Obispo, llamada “El buen gusto de París”, anunció la venta de la nueva tecnología en La Habana ese año. Ya a principios del siglo XIX, turistas estadounidenses, como los huracanes, llegaban a Cuba cada año en busca del sol, experiencias y comercio. Cuba importó bienes estadounidenses y Estados Unidos ofreció un importante mercado para las exportaciones agrícolas cubanas como el azúcar y el tabaco. La relación entre los dos países era tan estrecha que los propietarios de esclavos en Cuba y Estados Unidos apoyaron la anexión. Thomas Jefferson y John Quincy Adams expresaron el deseo de absorber a Cuba en el “Destino Manifiesto” de la Unión Americana. Cuando los Estados Unidos no pudieron comprar Cuba en reuniones secretas con una España devastada por la guerra en 1896, invadieron la isla bajo pretexto de defenderla después del bombardeo del U.S.S. Maine en 1898. La intervención estadounidense permitió que el sistema colonial continuara en una forma alterada. La enmienda de Platt, unida a la primera constitución de Cuba de 1901, garantizó la influencia de los EEUU sobre las políticas domésticas y extranjeras de Cuba; arrendó la Bahía de Guantánamo indefinidamente; y otorgó al Imperio Americano el derecho de intervenir militarmente si consideraba que el liderazgo de Cuba no era apto. El resultado fue una afluencia masiva de negocios, bienes de consumo, artes y tecnologías estadounidenses. Caudillos cubanos como Gerardo Machado y Fulgencio Batista trabajaron con grandes empresas estadounidenses para mantener a la isla a la vanguardia del modernismo en la región. Bajo Machado, Pan American Airlines comenzó sus primeros vuelos internacionales a La Habana en 1928. Una carretera principal, conectando US Highway 1 a La Habana vía ferry, se abrió en 1932. Y con Batista después de la deposición de Machado, Cuba se convirtió en un semillero de juego, turismo y un mar de Fords que rivalizaba con el éxito económico de cualquier ciudad importante del hemisferio durante los años cuarenta y cincuenta. Entonces llego la Revolución Cubana de 1959. La reforma de Platt había sido derogada en 1934, pero la economía de Cuba permaneció en gran parte en manos de bancos e intereses extranjeros hasta que Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Camilo Cienfuegos y sus camaradas barbudos volvieron a liberar la isla. Expulsaron a corporaciones extranjeras como Bacardi, Coca-Cola y Hershey; y dieron paso a una nueva era, para bien o para mal, de avances socialistas. Una alianza estratégica con la Unión Soviética trajo petróleo, coches y aviones rusos e incluso (por un breve y espantoso momento) armas nucleares a Cuba. 39 Bajo el socialismo, las artes de Cuba entraron en una nueva era Sexto. Ya en 1961, Fidel Castro dejó claro a la clase creativa también. Pero, al igual que con la tecnología, también fue una continuación de una tradición más larga, encarnada primero en las culturas materiales dejadas por las poblaciones indígenas diezmadas de la isla y luego por las prácticas visuales africanas traídas a Cuba por la trata de esclavos. Una contribución claramente europea vino después con la prestigiosa Academia de Arte de San Alejandro, establecida en 1818, como una de las más antiguas de su tipo en el continente americano. Los artistas cubanos formados en la escuela, entre ellos Wifredo Lam y Tania Bruguera, recibieron elogios por sus obras sobre el internacionalismo y las culturas locales en Cuba durante el siglo XX y en el XXI. Los años 80 vieron el levantamiento del movimiento del nuevo arte integrado por los artistas cubanos nacidos y criados después de la revolución. El generoso financiamiento público, la educación artística que supera el estándar mundial y un sentido doctrinal de la aplicabilidad social del arte proporcionaron un ambiente fértil para los artistas cubanos. El patrocinio del arte cubano ofreció una alternativa al mercado del arte capitalista, que a menudo degradaba e ignoraba a los artistas latinoamericanos. Con el apoyo del socialismo cubano, el Movimiento de Arte Nuevo redefinió las tendencias internacionales del arte (conceptualismo, minimalismo, pop art, obras de la tierra) a través de la cultura cubana (patrimonio africano, eurasiático e indígena, humor local conocido como el ‘choteo’ y nacionalismo). de Cuba: “Dentro de la revolución, todo. Contra la revolución, nada”. La represión del estado empeoró aún más después del fin de la URSS en 1989, que dio lugar a un colapso económico conocido como “El Período Especial”. En los años noventa se produjo un alzamiento del fundamentalismo político junto a una paradójica apertura de Cuba al turismo. Los artistas cubanos respondieron a estas presiones primero por la retirada y luego con un renovado sentido del propósito, utilizando el arte como una forma de debatir las circunstancias sociales de la nación. Una vez más, con el anuncio del presidente Barack Obama y Raúl Castro del acercamiento en 2014, las cosas han estado cambiando en Cuba. Y a pesar de las actuales políticas retrógradas de la administración Trump, los propios cubanos han seguido relacionados con el mundo. Sin embargo, la Cuba revolucionaria no fue y nunca ha sido una utopía creativa. La censura y la autocensura son retos sin resolver, lo que se evidencia más recientemente por la detención y arresto de artistas disidentes como Tania Bruguera y Danilo Maldonado Machado, también conocido como El 40 El modelo revolucionario de subvención y educación para las artes, junto con la historia de la isla de proeza tecnológica y adaptación cultural frente a la adversidad, ha creado una nueva generación de artistas a la vanguardia de la innovación. Los avances mundiales en tecnología continúan teniendo una profunda influencia en el proceso de elaboración del arte en Cuba, como lo fue desde el principio. Hoy en día, la relación entre arte y tecnología surge con más frecuencia de las soluciones cotidianas, abordando la escasez de recursos de la isla. Con el embargo comercial de los Estados Unidos de 1962 y luego el Período Especial de los años noventa, los cubanos han aprendido a sortear las limitaciones materiales. El artista y diseñador cubano con sede en Miami, Ernesto Oroza, usó una vez la frase “desobediencia tecnológica” para describir los términos innovadores con que los ciudadanos cubanos manejan las artes y la tecnología en el siglo XXI. De los viejos Ford readaptados con los motores de Toyota a las bicicletas convertidas en motocicletas a los medios digitales fuera de línea distribuidos a través de la isla: Los ciudadanos cubanos han encontrado innumerables maneras de resolver sus necesidades diarias a través de usos ingeniosos de la tecnología. Los artistas contemporáneos cubanos, a menudo con el apoyo del estado, han liderado la tarea de encontrar soluciones estéticas y prácticas a los problemas cotidianos. Un ejemplo de ello es la reciente instalación de wifi gratuito de alta velocidad en los estudios de escultura del artista cubano Alexis Leiva Machado, más conocido como Kcho. En colaboración con Google, el artista cubano, famoso por sus esculturas de barcos, anunció el proyecto durante la visita de Obama a la isla en 2016. Kcho, amigo cercano de los hermanos Castro y miembro activo del Partido Comunista, ha disfrutado de las bendiciones de el estado más que la mayoría. Pero otros artistas entrenados en La Habana, menos alineados con el gobierno cubano, han tenido éxitos similares, a pesar de la escasez de recursos en la isla. Josuhe H. Pagliery, egresado de la Academia de Arte de San Alejandro, y Johann H. Armenteros, entrenado en programación de computadoras en la Universidad de La Habana, son testimonio del modelo de subsidio y educación del estado cubano, así como de la independencia e innovación de la nueva generación de artistas cubanos. Originalmente entrenados para crear videojuegos patrocinados por el estado, los dos diseñaron recientemente un magnífico juego de plataformas independiente 2D llamado “Savior”, el primero de su tipo en Cuba. Las organizaciones sin fines de lucro en Cuba y Estados Unidos han financiado el videojuego, que debiera ser lanzado en 2018. Gracias a “El Paquete” y al mercado digital sin conexión de Cuba, los artistas se inspiraron en títulos como “Super Mario” y “Final Fantasy” para su diseño. En la escena internacional del arte, vemos una ideología similar de ir ‘resolviendo’ a través de la “desobediencia tecnológica”, ya sea en los paisajes sonoros de la artista cubana Glenda Leon; las hazañas de ingeniería y esteticismo expuestas en las icónicas obras de Los Carpinteros; los numerosos proyectos artísticos comunitarios de la Bienal de La Habana 2015; o en las obras multimedia y digitales de los artistas presentados hoy en la exposición The Cuban Matrix del Torrance Art Museum. En la fotografía, las instalaciones y las obras digitales de Ariamna Contino, Alejandro Figueredo Díaz-Perera, Jorge Otero Escobar, Diana Fonseca, Alejandro Hernández, Tony Labat y Juan Carlos Alom, Francisco Maso y Esterio Segura vemos exhibida la historia profunda de la interpretación de la cultura y las tecnologías internacionales en términos cubanos. Vemos esto en la documentación fotográfica digital de Jorge Otero Escobar, por ejemplo, y su desempeño del exilio y desplazamiento cultural encarnado en la figura del campesino cubano (guajiro), conectado a las calles de la ciudad de Nueva York. Lo vemos en la estetización de la estadística en las obras de Ariamna Contino, que rehumanizan las tragedias de la migración forzada y la guerra, de otra manera reducida a hechos y cifras. Así también, aparece en el videoarte de Diana Fonseca Quiñones, ya que imágenes en movimiento de objetos y experiencias comunes revelan una tensión entre el deseo y la carencia en la sociedad cubana contemporánea. Y la lista continúa. Los espectadores del exterior podrían sorprenderse por las innovaciones, a veces transgresivas, de los usos de la tecnología por la nueva generación de artistas 41 cubanos que se muestran aquí. Sus obras de arte intentan, en términos cubanos, resolver o al menos abordar los problemas culturales que se enfrentan en todo el mundo como resultado de la intensificación de la modernización, el cambio climático y el comercio internacional. Sus obras abren las profundidades de la sociedad cubana, las secuelas de la globalización y la vida psicológica y emocional de los propios artistas. Pero no deberíamos estar tan sorprendidos al ver la sofisticación cultural y tecnológica de estos artistas. Ella es el resultado de una larga historia de arte y tecnología en Cuba. Podríamos llamar a esto la estructura subyacente de la Matriz Cubana, encapsulada para mí en una discusión de verano sobre Game of Thrones sobre un plato de jamonada en una antigua mansión colonial. 42 DIANA FONSECA Still frame from “Savior”, Cuba’s First Independent Video Game -Image on page 16: Still frame from “Savior”, Cuba’s First Independent Video Game 43 “EL SÓL Y TÚ” (THE SUN AND YOU) Diana Fonseca Diana Fonseca (Havana, Cuba, 1978) is a creator interested in dismantling, almost obsessively, the simple things of life, and everyday events. Perhaps for that reason, or because of the lyrical propensity of her work, she catches varied images of reality and interconnects them in speeches that talk about disparity and inconsistencies; about contemporary life and visual saturation; about emptiness and banality. Graduated from the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) in 2005, Diana is one of the most interesting contemporary Cuban artists. She has performed numerous personal exhibitions both inside and outside the island. Among her most interesting solo projects are Diana Fonseca, which was held at the Sean Kelly Gallery in New York, USA. Her work has been included in collective relevance exhibitions such as CAM Louise Wells Cameron Art Museum. Wilmington, USA; Fireflies in the Night, Stravos Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC), Athens, Greece; La madre de todas las artes, at the Centro de Arte Wifredo Lam, Havana, Cuba; Transhumance, Beyond Cuban Horizons, at the CAB Art Center in Brussels, Belgium and Dilated Biography, Contemporary Cuban Narratives, at the School of Fine Arts, Boston, USA. During 2015 she was awarded the EFG Bank & ArtNexus Acquisition Prize, Bogotá and recently she receive JustMad Residency, Asturias, Spain (2017) and Cast Research, Melbourne, Australia (2016). 44 Diana Fonseca El Sol y Tú (The Sun and You) 2016 HD Video 2 minutes 6 seconds Courtesy of El Apartamento, Havana 45 Diana Fonseca El Sol y Tú (The Sun and You) 2016 HD Video 2 minutes 6 seconds Courtesy of El Apartamento, Havana 46 Diana Fonseca El Sol y Tú (The Sun and You) 2016 HD Video 2 minutes 6 seconds Courtesy of El Apartamento, Havana 47 TONY LABAT WITH JUAN CARLOS ALOM 48 49 “CONNECTIFY” 2017 (Aislado/Conectado) Tony Labat with Juan Carlos Alom In 2015 the Cuban Government started to install WIFI in neighborhood parks throughout the city of Havana. These public spaces have been transformed -- from a space used by couples, the elderly to relax and contemplate, children to play -- to individuals isolated and immersed in the glow of their screens, connected, if you will, to another distant space (mostly abroad), yet not connected physically or socially to the immediate surroundings. There is something twisted about this urban public space transformed. In terms of Urban Planning, and alternative possibilities to provide Internet access to the people, there is a question as to why the Government decided to use the parks. Although Labat has lived in the United States for many decades, he never became a U.S. citizen, which has impeded his travel abroad in the last year. To undertake this project, Labat and Alom relied on communicating solely through the internet. This long distance collaboration and sharing of information is an integral component to the project. For the artists, the decision was made to not isolate just one or a few images, but to show an accumulation of different neighborhoods and times of day, manifested in a collection that builds upon itself and creates a space to reflect on what is gained and what is lost in this Cuban contemporary reality and how technology has placed such an irreversible path. 50 Tony Labat, with Juan Carlos Alom Aislado/Conectado (Connectify) 2017 Video / Slide Loop Dimensions Variable 51 Tony Labat, with Juan Carlos Alom Aislado/Conectado (Connectify) 2017 Video / Slide Loop Dimensions Variable 52 Tony Labat, with Juan Carlos Alom Aislado/Conectado (Connectify) 2017 Video / Slide Loop Dimensions Variable 53 Tony Labat, with Juan Carlos Alom Aislado/Conectado (Connectify) 2017 Video / Slide Loop Dimensions Variable 54 Tony Labat, with Juan Carlos Alom Aislado/Conectado (Connectify) 2017 Video / Slide Loop Dimensions Variable 55 Tony Labat, with Juan Carlos Alom Aislado/Conectado (Connectify) 2017 Video / Slide Loop Dimensions Variable 56 Tony Labat, with Juan Carlos Alom Aislado/Conectado (Connectify) 2017 Video / Slide Loop Dimensions Variable 57 Tony Labat, with Juan Carlos Alom Aislado/Conectado (Connectify) 2017 Video / Slide Loop Dimensions Variable 58 Tony Labat, with Juan Carlos Alom Aislado/Conectado (Connectify) 2017 Video / Slide Loop Dimensions Variable 59 Tony Labat, with Juan Carlos Alom Aislado/Conectado (Connectify) 2017 Video / Slide Loop Dimensions Variable 60 FRANCISCO MASÓ 61 Francisco Masó Colección Todo x 25 (All for 25) 2017 Multimedia installation Dimensions variable 62 PROJECT STATEMENT Francisco Masó All x 25 Collection turns the artistic space of the museum into a public space of information exchange. This artwork thought as an event allows the public set up a direct dialog with the dynamic of the phenomenon of off-line access to the information in Cuba. The experience is through the production and selling in real time of DVDs. Furthermore, the book Post PostProduction Project is presented. This one constitutes a comprehensive compilation of essays, videos and images about the artistic researching of the piracy in Cuba and its evolution in the social structure. ARTIST STATEMENT Francisco Masó My projects have a strong interest in the concept of power and its translation from different social, cultural and institutional mechanisms. In this sense, each creation constitute an arsenal of production never unconnected to the conflicts of the individual in context. The interaction with the viewer is assumed like one of the central axes of the works, as well as the dialogue between the artworks and the space in which they are created. I believe in the capacity of development of contemporary art from a socially active attitude. My work is based on the investigation of political and economic phenomena that are materialized on contemporary artistic practices ranging from the generation of a film festival (3D Film Festival, 2014) to the creation of a newspaper or a publishing house (Circular Gazette, 2016). I usually appropriate of existing tools outside the field of art as “participant observation” (term from ethnography) to develop critical models, execution strategies and development structures. 63 TODO X 25: ABOUT BUSINESS AS ART OR ART AS BUSINESS Francisco Masó & Aldeide Delgado At the close of the Special Period11 began the slow process of the computerization of Cuban society that would positively impact and change the notion of data exchange. The so-called computer revolution was accompanied not only by technological renewal, expressed in the replacement of coaxial cable for optical fiber, switching of MS-DOS systems to Windows and the replacement of computers 386 and 486 by PENTIUM but also the emergence of new state programs aimed at regulating the access to information. Initially, the opportunity of Internet access was controlled by the political institutions Automated Information Exchange Center (CENIAI) and the Ministry of the Interior (MININT) in addition to the establishment of the Ministry of Computing and Communications in 1996, whose objective was to govern the state policy regarding information technology, telecommunications, information exchange networks, broadcasting and the electronics industry. During this stage, internal e-mail services, through networks such as INFOMED were established in the area of Public Health, virtual portals were created (Islagrande, Cubaweb or Cubaindustria) of political content belonging to the 64 ministries, a number of press bodies and universities, and the Youth Club of Computing was established with a municipal scope and implemented educational multimedia products on the subjects of music, medicine, history and geography of the country. These measures exemplify the characteristics of a period focused on gradual technological upgrade; however, this process did not reached the ordinary citizen who was unable to access the means to purchase computers, let alone to access an Internet connection. In conclusion, this was a limited communication system defined by ideological control and its reliance of institutional bodies and government officials. In the face of state control over the mass media, it has been necessary to create alternative routes of access to information that at their core decentralize official forms of information consumption that take into account and take advantage of the new technological developments of the moment. The advantages of digital media and the political conditions that accompanied it were some of the factors that led to the establishment – from the streets – of a parallel system of massive consumption of information. As evidenced by both the development of the old forms of cassette tapes, betacam22, clandestine networks of satellite antennas and forms of DVDs and CDs show how much audiovisual piracy has settled in Cuban society to the point of becoming a cultural expression.3 In this sense, while the arrival of the Internet meant the possibility of obtaining data through the interaction of users in the virtual space, for the people it constitutes a reality that has been accessed relatively heavily in the last two years. The availability of computers in the underground market coupled with existence of slow and expensive connections4 and the need to know other realities has led to the emergence of a new type of employment in the domestic sector – a form of self-sufficiency5 – that there is a means of basic productivity in computers. The Cuban, without escaping daily brushes with nonauthorized copies, has developed imperceptibility in the face of piracy through the daily interaction with said infractions and has begun to accept such practices as normal. For example, in the context of the visual arts – if we examine standardized behavior – the reproduction of alternate forms of circulation and consumption are utilized on a daily basis: exchange of films, documentaries, publicity, programs and interviews that allow us to be up-to-date on current international events related to art. The information is recorded from foreign channels and imported by critics, curators and artists on their travels who, fearing not being able to travel any more, collect and compile audiovisuals downloaded from different free Internet sites, books, catalogs, magazines and leaflets, all acquired from different events (exhibitions, fairs, auctions and biennials). The arrival of art materials goes hand-in-hand—much like Sunday’s paper—after being ripped6, scanned, photocopied and photographed by colleagues. Fully contributing to the smuggling of intellectual property, not only do we illegally traffic digital images of the originals but, also in the case of videos, we may have fiddled [trapicheamos]7 with the artist’s work. That is, we commit piracy with original copies, not with the representation of the original as it happens in the case of the photographed image of a picture. According to Walter Benjamin in The Work of Art in the Age of its Technological Reproducibility: Every day, the need to get hold of an object at close range in an image [Bild], or, better, in a facsimile [Abbild], a reproduction. And the reproduction [Reproduktion] … differs unmistakably from the image. Uniqueness and permanence are as closely entwined in the latter as are transitoriness and repeatability in the former. The stripping of the veil from the object, the destruction of the aura, is the signature of a perception whose “sense for all that is the same in the world” has so increased that, by means of reproduction, it extracts sameness even from what is unique. 8 Standardized piracy as a daily practice in the field of art has generated a system of interpersonal relations of non-lucrative exchange different from popular commoditization. Proposing a project that takes into account the consumption of the work of art in this 65 panorama constitutes an exercise in understanding the phenomenon implementing video as commodity. We find a precedent of this type of work in 2010 with the IP Détournement project developed by the artist Tania Bruguera through the invitation of the Center Pompidou’s to work with its archives and collections. IP Détournement proposed the questioning of artists regarding their stance on the market through the – authorized – copy regarding the works of art in the museum’s collection of New Media in order to sell them in the areas surrounding the Center. Video art or videocreation98 is fundamental in this case due to the system of relations that originate in the field of art similar to the exchange lucrative film and TV shows in illicit business. IP Détournement as well as Collection All x 25 reproduce the strategies of social functioning in order to generate our own proper mechanisms of growth. Colección Todo x 25 integrates the Post PostProduction Project (PPPP) developed between 2012 and 2015 by the artist Francisco Masó. PPPP is an artistic proposal focused on the investigation of audiovisual piracy in Cuba as a phenomenon with repercussions on the collective perspective. The Project Development Structure (PPPP) is composed of three periods called: stage of appropriation, production stage and autopirate stage. Yes, while the appropriation stage was characterized by the copy of foreign materials and the stage of production focused on the creation of elements such as posters, music, images and videos to generate original materials; the 66 stage of autopirate constituted the upper phase that was dedicated to compiling elements produced in advance and generated a product of different ethical values. Colección Todo x 25 – understood in its third stage – proposes to break the institutional inertia by transforming space into a dynamic center for exchange of information. The artist in his position of agent as post post producer10 – dealer – allows the public to establish a dialogue with complexities of the phenomenon of off-line access to information in Cuba, to the establishment of new means of circulation and commercialization of the artistic work in specific contexts. The sale equal to the value of 25 pesos in national currency, or its equivalent 1 CUC, of the products – videos – generated by the artist in the research process corresponds with the prices of DVDs and CDs sold among the Cuban population. In this way, Colección Todo x 25 leads the artist-public relationship to its most basic role producer-client service in a speech that in its desire to bring art closer to the praxis vital – a concept so dear to the avant-garde – ends by rethinking the forms of artistic collecting and to establish a critique of the systems of production and consumption of the art market. (Endnotes) 1 A Euphemism used to define the period of economic crisis in Cuban society at the beginning of the nineties. 2 A family of professional-grade half-inch videotape formats created by Sony in 1982. 3 There is great interest and pleasure in viewing films among the Cuban population. But this positive indicator – on the rise – does not correspond with cinematic consumption in exhibition spaces but responds to two main access and/or consumption areas: video and television. From the recording of satellite antennas and movie theaters, the particular points of sale of pirated films constitute the ideal space to purchase the latest movies. With a varied collection of genres (action, adventure, terror, dramas, etc.) pirate centers of CDs and DVDs – legally allowed – have been established as the audiovisual supply bases of society. Vid. Francisco Masó. Post Post Production Project. 2012-2015. (Unpublished) 4 65 megabits-per-second to upload information and 124 megabitsper-second to download. 5 This refers to the form of work that self-employment practices. 6 Ripping is the process of copying audio and video data from one multimedia device (CD, DVD) to another digital data support (HDD, CD, DVD). It can also be called “ripping” extracted information of analog media such as VHS video. To save storage space, files copies are usually encoded in compressed formats such as MP3 and WMA for audio and MPEG-2, MPEG-4, AVI, MOV for video. 7 Popular name given to trade and retail exchange. los periódicos ilustrados y los noticiarios, se distingue inequívo camente de la imagen. En esta, la singularidad y la perduración están imbricadas una en otra de manera tan estrecha como lo están en aquella la fugacidad y la posible repetición. Quitarle su envoltura a cada objeto, triturar su aura, es la signatura de una percepción cuyo sentido para lo igual en el mundo ha crecido tanto que incluso, por medio de la reproducción, le gana terreno a lo irrepetible.” Walter Benjamin, “La obra de arte en la época de su reproductibilidad técnica”, in Discursos Interrumpidos I, (Buenos Aires: Taurus, 1972), pg. 4. 9 It is an expressive genre and means that integrates, in itself, constructive resources of order aesthetic, given in the form of appropriation, intertextuality, pastiche and parody, with those who film making, referred to the slowing of images, acceleration, zoom, appropriation of the existing film background, to cite the most used. Magaly Espinosa, International Festival of Videoart of Camagüey in its V Edition. 10 Title given by Francisco Masó to the person who executes postproduction processes on an audiovisual material using edition, ripping and post-production computer programs. In charge of recording the projections in cinemas with amateur cameras – illegally for profit – and/or ripping the video feed of antennas, they reissue the materials and add their own logo mark. 8 Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility”, in The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility, and Other Writings on Media, ed. by Michael W. Jennings, Brigid Doherty and Thomas Y. Levin, translated by Edmund Jephcott, Rodney Livingstone, Howard Eiland, and Others (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2008), p. 23. Original included citation: “Cada día cobra una vigencia más irrecusable la necesidad de adueñarse de los objetos en la más próxima de las cercanías, en la copia, en la reproducción. Y la reproducción, tal como la aprestan 67 Francisco Masó Colección Todo x 25 (All for 25) 2017 Multimedia installation Dimensions variable 68 Francisco Masó Colección Todo x 25 (All for 25) 2017 Multimedia installation Dimensions variable 69 TODO X 25: SOBRE ELNEGOCIO COMO ARTE O EL ARTE COMO NEGOCIO Francisco Masó & Aldeide Delgado En las postrimerías del Período Especial1 comenzó un lento proceso de informatización de la sociedad cubana que impactaría positivamente y cambiaría la noción en torno al intercambio de datos. La denominada revolución informática estuvo acompañada no solo de la renovación tecnológica, expresada en la sustitución del cable coaxial por la fibra óptica, el paso de los sistemas MS-DOS a Windows y el reemplazo de los ordenadores 386 y 486 por PENTIUM; sino también, del surgimiento de nuevos programas estatales orientados a regular el acceso a la información. La incipiente posibilidad de conexión a Internet se mantuvo controlada por las instituciones políticas Centro de Intercambio Automatizado de Información (CENIAI) y Ministerio del Interior (MININT). A ello habría que agregar la fundación en el año 1996 del Ministerio de la Informática y las Comunicaciones cuyo objetivo fue regir la política estatal en lo referido a las tecnologías informáticas, las telecomunicaciones, las redes de 70 70 intercambio de información, la radiodifusión y la industria electrónica. Durante esta etapa se establecieron los servicios de correos electrónicos internos, a través de redes como INFOMED para el área de Salud Pública, se crearon los portales virtuales (Islagrande, Cubaweb o Cubaindustria) de contenido político pertenecientes a los ministerios, órganos de prensa y universidades, se instituyeron los Joven Club de Computación con un alcance municipal y se implementaron productos multimedias de carácter didáctico sobre la música, la medicina, la historia y la geografía del país. Estas medidas ejemplifican la caracterización de un período enfocado en la gradual actualización tecnológica; sin embargo, este proceso no alcanzó al ciudadano común imposibilitado de acceder a la compra de computadoras y más aún a la conexión a Internet. En resumen se trata de un estrecho sistema de comunicación definido por el control ideológico y su reducción a los órganos institucionales y funcionarios del gobierno. Ante el control estatal sobre los medios masivos de comunicación, ha sido necesario la construcción de rutas alternativas de acceso a la información que descentralicen las formas oficiales de consumo tomando en cuenta las novedades tecnológicas del momento. Las ventajas de los medios digitales y las condiciones de políticas coyunturales fueron algunos de los factores que propiciaron el establecimiento -desde las callesde un mercado paralelo de consumo masivo. Tanto el desarrollo de los antiguos bancos de cassettes betacam2, las redes clandestinas de antenas satelitales y los bancos de DVDs y CDs evidencian cuánto ha cuajado la piratería audiovisual en la sociedad cubana hasta el punto de convertirse en una expresión cultural3. En este sentido si bien la llegada de Internet significó la posibilidad de obtener datos mediante la interacción de los usuarios en el espacio virtual, para el pueblo constituye una realidad a la que se accede de forma relativamente masiva en los dos últimos años. La disponibilidad de ordenadores en el mercado underground unido a la existencia de conexiones lentas4 y costosas y la necesidad de conocer otras realidades ha propiciado el surgimiento de un nuevo tipo de empleo en el sector doméstico –forma de cuentapropismo-5 que haya en las computadoras el medio productivo básico. El cubano -sin escapar de la experiencia cotidiana en torno a las copias no autorizadas- ha desarrollado una imperceptibilidad frente a la piratería mediante la detección de infracciones diarias como prácticas de normalidad. Por ejemplo, en el contexto de las artes visuales –si seguimos la conducta estandarizada- se reproducen las formas alternas de circulación y de consumo aprehendidas de la vida cotidiana: intercambio de películas, documentales, publicidad, programas televisivos y entrevistas que nos permiten estar actualizados de los acontecimientos internacionales relacionados al arte. La información es grabada de canales extranjeros e importada por críticos, curadores y artistas de sus viajes quienes -cautelosos de no viajar nunca más- recopilan audiovisuales -bajados de los diferentes sitios gratis de Internet-, libros, catálogos, revistas y volantes adquiridos en diferentes eventos (exposiciones, ferias, subastas y bienales). El arribo de los materiales de arte pasa de mano en mano -como el paquete semanal- tras ser rippeados6, escaneados, fotocopiados y fotografiados por colegas. En plena contribución con el contrabando de la propiedad intelectual, no solo traficamos con imágenes digitales de los originales, sino que en el caso de los videos trapicheamos 7 con la obra del artista. Es decir, pirateamos con copias originales, no con la representación del original como sucede en el caso de la imagen fotografiada de un cuadro. Según plantea Walter Benjamin en La obra de arte en la época de su reproductibilidad técnica: Cada día cobra una vigencia más irrecusable la necesidad de adueñarse de los objetos en la más próxima de las cercanías, en la imagen, más bien en la copia, en la reproducción. Y la reproducción…se distingue inequívocamente de la imagen. La obra de arte reproducida se convierte, en medida siempre creciente, en reproducción de una obra artística dispuesta para ser reproducida. 71 La piratería normalizada como práctica cotidiana en el terreno artístico ha generado un sistema de relaciones interpersonales de intercambio no lucrativo diferente a la mercantilización popular. De tal modo proponer un proyecto que piense las relaciones de consumo de la obra de arte en este panorama constituye un ejercicio de comprensión del fenómeno implementando el video como mercancía. Un antecedente de este tipo de trabajo lo hallamos, en el año 2010, en el proyecto IP Détournement desarrollado por la artista Tania Bruguera con motivo de la invitación del Centre Pompidou a trabajar con sus archivos y colecciones. IP Détournement proponía el cuestionamiento de la posición de los artistas hacia el mercado a través de la copia –autorizada- de las obras de la Colección de Nuevos Medios para venderlas en las áreas circundantes al Centro. El video arte o la videocreación8 deviene fundamental en este caso debido al sistema de relaciones que origina en el campo del arte similar al intercambio lucrativo de películas y TV shows en los negocios ilícitos. IP Détournement así como Colección Todo x 25 reproducen las estrategias de funcionamiento social para engendrar mecanismos propios de desarrollo. Colección Todo x 25 integra el Proyecto Post PostProducción (PPPP) desarrollado entre los años 2012 y 2015 por el artista Francisco Masó. PPPP es una propuesta artística enfocada en la investigación de la piratería audiovisual en Cuba como un fenómeno con 72 72 repercusiones en la percepción colectiva. La estructura de desarrollo del Proyecto (PPPP) está compuesta por tres períodos denominados: etapa de apropiación, etapa producción y etapa autopirateo. Si bien, la etapa de apropiación se caracterizó por la copia de materiales ajenos y la etapa de producción se enfocó en la creación de elementos como carteles, música, imágenes y videos para generar materiales originales; la etapa de autopirateo constituyó la fase superior que se dedicó a compilar elementos producidos con anterioridad y generar un producto de valores éticos diferentes. Colección Todo x 25 –comprendido en la tercera etapaplantea romper la inercia artística institucional mediante la transformación del espacio en un centro dinámico de intercambio de información. El artista en su posición de agente post post productor9 –negociante- permite al público establecer un diálogo con las complejidades del fenómeno del acceso off-line a la información en Cuba, a la vez que supone el establecimiento de nuevas estrategias de circulación y comercialización de la obra artística en contextos específicos. La venta por el valor de 25 pesos en moneda nacional o su equivalente 1 CUC de los productos –videos- generados por el artista en el proceso de investigación se corresponde con los precios de los DVDs y CDs vendidos entre la población. De tal modo Colección Todo x 25 conduce la relación artistapúblico a su rol más básico servicio productor-cliente en un discurso que en su afán de acercar el arte a la praxis vital - concepto tan caro a las vanguardias- termina por repensar las formas del coleccionismo artístico y establecer incluso una crítica hacia los sistemas de producción y consumo del mercado del arte. (HDD, CD, DVD). También puede denominarse “ripear” a la información extraída de medios analógicos como un vídeo VHS. Para ahorrar espacio de almacenamiento, los archivos copiados suelen codificarse en formatos comprimidos como MP3 y WMA para audio y MPEG-2, MPEG-4, AVI, MOV para vídeo. 7 Denominación popular dada al comercio e intercambio al por menor. (Notas) 1 Eufemismo empleado para definir el período de crisis económica en la sociedad cubana a inicios de la década del noventa. 2 Es una familia de formatos de videocintas profesionales de media pulgada creada por Sony en 1982. 3 Existe un gran interés y gusto por la visualización de películas entre la población cubana. Pero este indicador positivo -en ascenso- no guarda correspondencia alguna con el consumo cinematográfico en los espacios de exhibición, sino que responde a dos rutas principales de acceso y/o consumo: el video y la televisión. A partir de la grabación de antenas satelitales y salas de cine, los puntos particulares de venta de películas piratas constituyen el espacio idóneo para adquirir los filmes más recientes. Con una variada colección de géneros (acción, aventuras, terror, dramas, etc.) los centros de comercialización piratas de CDs y DVDs -legalmente permitido- se han establecido como las bases de suministro audiovisual de la sociedad. Vid. Francisco Masó. Proyecto Post Post Producción. 2012-2015. (Inédito) 8 Es un género y medio expresivo que integra, en sí mismo, recursos constructivos de orden estético, dados en forma de apropiación, intertextualidad, pastiche y parodia, con aquellos que toma del cine, referidos a la ralentización de imágenes, la aceleración, el zoom, la apropiación del fondo fílmico existente, por citar los más usados. Magaly Espinosa. Festival Internacional de Videoarte de Camagüey en su V Edición. 9 Denominación dada por Francisco Masó a la persona que ejecuta los procesos de post postproducción en un material audiovisual utilizando programas de edición, ripeo y postproducción. Encargado que graba -ilegalmente con fines lucrativos- las proyecciones de los cines con cámaras amateurs y/o la programación de la antena, reedita los materiales y agrega su marca a través de logo. 4 65 megabits por segundo para subir información y 124 megabits por segundo para descargar. 5 Se refiere a la forma de trabajo que practica el autoempleo. 6 Ripear es el proceso de copiar los datos de audio y vídeo de un dispositivo multimedia (CD, DVD) a otro soporte de datos digital 73 REYNIER LEYVA NOVO 74 74 EL DESEO DE MORIR POR OTROS [THE DESIRE TO DIE FOR OTHERS] Reynier Leyva Novo False Clarity El deseo de morir por otros [The Desire to Die for Others], shown at Colegio San Gerónimo during the XI Havana Biennial in 2012, consists of a series of replicas of actual weapons used by the leaders of War of Independence: The guns of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, Calixto García, and José Martí, national Cuban hero, [ . . . ] as well as the swords of Antonio Maceo, Máximo Gómez, Manuel Sanguily and Quintín Bandera; and even the bullet that killed Gómez Toro.9 In this piece, more than in any other, Novo’s work approximates an exact science. He obtained permission from Eusebio Leal, the Director of the Oficina del Historiador de la Ciudad, the agency in charge of historical preservation in Havana, to make molds of the original weapons. The challenge was to find molding material that would not damage the pieces yet still allow the artist to reproduce the originals with 99.9% accuracy. Novo’s objective was to transfer to the replica the actual state of the weapons with all their imperfections. For him, every trace, every scratch in the object was also evidence of the war itself. The molding material that was finally used was elastosil, a liquid form of silicone that can faithfully reproduce the texture of the weapons. Proximity to the original was literal in every sense. In order to handle the original weapons, Novo made the molds in a studio he set up inside the museum where the weapons had been on display and untouched for over 20 years. A month before the Biennial, Novo brought the molds to the US to make the final pieces. The replicas are made of polyester resin — a translucent, glasslike material — that makes them simultaneously ghostly and precious, like fine jewelry. During the Biennial, the pieces were exhibited against a black velvet backdrop in crystal cases visible from the street, with lighting reminiscent of that of a jewelry store.10 Let me elaborate on the two comparisons I have suggested so far. The translucent pieces are ghostly because they suggest their referent, the real weapons, but in an ethereal, unnatural way. This ghostly effect was further exacerbated by the reflection of the passers-by on the streets of Old Havana.11 The displayed weapons are visibly fake and therefore innocuous. In addition, the beauty and the clarity of the jewelry-like pieces help further undermine their original function as weapons. What is ultimately showcased in this installation is the material, and the ultimate material is light. Light helps us decontextualize and sublimate the historical weapons so that we can appreciate in them the presence of an aesthetic soul. There is, however, a third effect. In contrast to both the ghostliness and the sublimated beauty of the piece, the replicas make a claim for sensorial veracity. Because the pieces are almost exact replicas of the original weapons, they largely derive their vitality 75 from the sense of touch. Even when we may never really touch the usually encased pieces, were we to touch the weapon, we would feel the same proportions, the same crevices and scratches that Céspedes or Máximo Gómez felt. The replicas are metonymically connected to the national hero and thus constitutive of his greatness. The object then becomes a vehicle or a mediator that facilitates the imaginary union of spectator and hero across time. The triangulation abolishes time: spectator and hero are joined by a common tactile sensation. I suggest that this can be interpreted as a trompe l’oeil. A trompe l’oeil is usually defined as a visual illusion that tricks the eye into seeing a flat representation as a three-dimensional object. Of course, the replicas I am discussing are already three-dimensional objects. However, the analogy works when trompe l’oeil is defined more broadly as two sensorial perceptions at odds with each other. In traditional trompe l’oeil, seeing is deceptive while touch uncovers the deception. The sense of touch refutes the false truth suggested by sight. In The Desire to Die for Others, however, touch produces the illusion while sight reveals the truth of the piece, which is its untruthfulness, its simulation. The illusion of presence (the feeling that this is really the hero’s weapon) is suggested by the continuity of the material scars of the object that have been transferred to its replica. Here, sight unveils the truth. From this perspective, the replicas can be said to comply with Sarduy’s description of trompe l’oeil as a form of simulacrum: Trompe l’oeil, whose very definition is the ability to pass for the referent, to codify it, without any excess so that it may become the referent itself, is in such close proximity to the referent that it denies the presence of art. (42/106) To be sure, the translucent material provides a sense of artifice or technique; what Sarduy describes as “the décalage with the real that is the measure of style.” (42/106) At the same time, however, the replica seeks to pass for the referent in its “intransigent commitment to realism,” to use Sarduy’s words (43/107; emphasis in the original) Novo’s work, like Sarduy’s trompe l’oeil, is based on a paradox. The aim in both cases is to breathe life into the piece without revealing the true essence of things: a false clarity. Sarduy adds that, as a form of simulacrum, trompe l’oeil, seeks “to accumulate the second vibrations of its appearance, since it is not forms or ideas but additional layers of air, surfaces, that must be incorporated into human space.” (42/106) The experience of the spectator is one of discovery in which he or she actualizes those layers of air, which provide volume, so as to unveil a truth antithetical to the one offered by visual perception. I will take this one step further by looking at The Desire to Die for Others in light of a secondary aspect of trompe l’oeil, which is that of forced perspective. Forced perspective shows an object either bigger or smaller than other objects represented, giving the false sensation of being farther away or closer to the spectator. Taken to a metaphorical level, then, the effect of the installation is to play with our sense of emotional distance. I claimed above that the tactile experience helps abolish the distance between hero and spectator. When we think of the triangulation suggested by this installation in affective terms, we can see it as an instance of forced perspective. The installation invites us, the spectators, to feel our physical proximity to the hero while gauging the moral distance that separates us from him. The closer we feel to Martí, the better we can measure our own insignificance. 76 Reynier Leyva Novo El Deseo De Morir par Otros (The Desire to Die for Others) 2012 Cast Polyester resin from original objects, Dimensions variable 77 Reynier Leyva Novo Machete Antonio Maceo from El Deseo De Morir par Otros (The Desire to Die for Others) Belonged to Major General Antonio Maceo Grajales. In the upper side of the handle we read: “Invasion by Maceo 1895”. 19th century 2012, Cast Polyester resin from original objects Dimensions variable 78 Reynier Leyva Novo Machete Manuel Sanguily from El Deseo De Morir par Otros (The Desire to Die for Others) Belonged to Colonel Manuel Sanguily, 19th century United States of America, Collins & Legitimus Hartford No. 14 2012, Cast Polyester resin from original objects Dimensions variable 79 Reynier Leyva Novo Machete Máximo Gómez from El Deseo De Morir par Otros (The Desire to Die for Others) Gift presented by José Martí to Major General Máximo Gómez. Used by the latter during the 1895-1898 war. 19th century, Cuba 2012, Cast Polyester resin from original objects Dimensions variable 80 Reynier Leyva Novo Machete Quintín Bandera from El Deseo De Morir par Otros (The Desire to Die for Others) Belonged to Division General José Quintino Bandera Betancourt. 19th century, United States of America, Collins No. 87 2012, Cast Polyester resin from original objects Dimensions variable 81 Reynier Leyva Novo Revolver Calixto García Iñiguez from El Deseo De Morir par Otros (The Desire to Die for Others) Belonged to Major General Calixto García Iñiguez. 19th century, Smith & Wesson 2012, Cast Polyester resin from original objects Dimensions variable 82 Reynier Leyva Novo Revolver Carlos Manuel de Céspedes from El Deseo De Morir par Otros (The Desire to Die for Others) Belonged to the President of the Republic of Cuba in Arms, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes. With this revolver he fired three times when he encountered the Spanish troops at Yara, the day after the start of the Ten Years’ War in Cuba, in 1868. 19th century, France, Le fa Cheux 2012, Cast Polyester resin from original objects, Dimensions variable 83 Reynier Leyva Novo Revolver José Martí from El Deseo De Morir par Otros (The Desire to Die for Others) Gift presented by Panchito Gómez Toro to José Martí in United States of America. It is known as Colt “Frontier” or “Pacifier”. Siglo XIX Colt Frontier 2012, Cast Polyester resin from original objects Dimensions variable 84 Reynier Leyva Novo Bullet Francisco (Panchito) Gómez Toro from El Deseo De Morir par Otros (The Desire to Die for Others) This bullet hit Panchito Gómez Toro in the chest. It was found during the disinterment of his corpse. 19th century, Cuba, M.G. No. 26168 2012, Cast Polyester resin from original objects Dimensions variable 85 ESTERIO SEGURA 86 86 Esterio Segura Los Secreto (Secrets) 2017 Digital photographs on canvas 24.16 x 19.15 inches 87 “LOS SECRETOS” (THE SECRETS) Esterio Segura (Español) El ser humano tiene la necesidad constante de comunicarse o de interactuar a través de ideas. Eso define su carácter e inteligencia. Durante años, en Cuba, la prohibición de las antenas parabólicas con acceso a servicios televisivos internacionales, ha provocado una incomunicación, casi frustrante, de la sociedad para con el resto del mundo. De ahí que Esterio Segura se centrara en el proyecto Los Secretos, el cual toca la comunicación o, en su defecto, la ausencia de ella, como una de las problemáticas más antiguas de la humanidad. El modo de hacer fotos del artista con un carácter documental se define por el modo sui generis en que están colocadas en los diferentes espacios hogareños. En muchos casos se convierte en una especie de estética instalativa. La selección fotográfica no se hace de manera arbitraria, sino que juega con el conjunto de elementos encontrados en cada uno de los recintos. Como las antenas parabólicas son hechas a mano y regularmente escondidas dentro de bolsas de basura, se ha documentado solo las que tienen un carácter más artístico según el modo en que están instaladas. (English) The human being has the constant need to communicate or to interact through ideas. That defines his character and intelligence. For a long time, in Cuba, having satellite dishes with complete access to international television has been forbidden and has caused a frustrating incommunication of the Cuban society with all the whole world. That’s why Esterio Segura was focused on the project The Secrets. It talks about communication or its absence as one of the oldest problems of mankind. The artist’s way of taking photos with a documentary point of view is defined by a sui generis mode of installation in the different home spaces. In fact, it becomes in a kind of installation aesthetics. The photographic selection wasn’t done arbitrarily but plays with the set of each elements that was found in every place by the artist. As all these satellite dishes are handmade and regularly they are hidden inside garbage bags, only it has been documented all those that had a more artistic character according to the way they were installed. 88 Esterio Segura Fotografía 1 From the series, Los Secreto (Secrets) 2017 Digital photograph on canvas 26.7 x 19.12 inches 89 Esterio Segura Fotografía 5 From the series, Los Secreto (Secrets) 2017 Digital photograph on canvas 24.16 x 19.15 inches 90 Esterio Segura Fotografía 6 From the series, Los Secreto (Secrets) 2017 Digital photograph on canvas 24.15 x 19.13 inches 91 Esterio Segura Fotografía 10 From the series, Los Secreto (Secrets) 2017 Digital photograph on canvas 26.6 x 19.15 inches 92 Esterio Segura Fotografía 11 From the series, Los Secreto (Secrets) 2017 Digital photograph on canvas 26.7 x 19.15 inches 93 ARTIST RESUMES 94 ARTIST RESUMES ARIAMNA CONTINO MENDOZA Havana, Cuba, 1984 STUDIES 2004 - Graduate of the National Academy of Fine Arts San Alejandro specializing in engraving. Havana, Cuba. 2006 - Camera studies and audiovisual production in the Ludwig Foundation of Cuba. 2007 - AVID editing course taught by teachers of the technical school in Copenhagen. Documentary filmmaking program by N.Y.U. Tisch School of the Arts. New York University and the Ludwig Foundation of Cuba. PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY She currently serves as professor of engraving at the Academy of San Alejandro and an independent visual artist in Havana, Cuba. PERSONAL EXHIBITIONS 2016 - Aesthetic Militancy. Andreas Binder Gallery, Munich, Germany (Bi-personal exhibition with Ariamna Contino) 2015 - Road to Eden, Zona Franca, Collateral to the 12th Havana Biennial, Fort San Carlos de la Cabana, Havana, Cuba 2014 - Atlas Gallery Havana, Havana, Cuba. COLLECTIVE EXHIBITIONS 2017 Archive collection. National Museum of Fine Art, La Habana, Cuba. Art fair in Context, New York, Represent for La Acaica Gallery Overseas. Cuba and The Bahamas. Contemporary Art of the Caribbean. Contemporary art center Halle 14, Leipzig, Germany. Incomplete Register, Havana Gallery, La Habana, Cuba Co-lectiva, Providencia Montecarmelo Cultural Institute, Chile Armory Show, Art Fair, New York. Represent for Havana Gallery Geomtrics, Andreas Binder Gallery, Munich, Germany 2016 Chinas boxes. La Acacia Gallery, La Havana, Cuba Art Fair ARTMiami, Pan American Art Project, Miami, USA. Art Fair ARTMiami, Andreas Binder Gallery, Miami, USA. Insular line. (Collateral exhibition of Artbo Art Fair, La Cometa Gallery, Bogota, Colombia CHACO Art Fair, CoGallery, Chile Duchamp´s silence, Havana factory, Havana, Cuba. Chaotic, Ernst Hilger Gallery, Viena, Austria. Subject and predicated. Cuban Art Factory, Havana, Cuba. (Art)xiomas, Museum of the Americas, Washington, USA. Blurred traditions, Villa Manuela Gallery, Havana, Cuba. Iran x Cuba: Beyond the headline, Rogue Space Chelsea, USA. Free Cuba, Ludwig de Koblenz Museum, Germany Art Fair ArtLima, Evolución Gallery, Lima, Peru Art Fair ArtLima, CoGalería Gallery , Lima, Peru Art Fair Dallas, Robert Miller Gallery, USA The mother of all the arts, Wifredo Lam Center, Havana, Cuba Ascension, Nacional Library of Cuba, Havana, Cuba. Armory Show Art Fair, Havana Gallery, New York, USA. Basic Instinct. Works on paper in the collection of CNAP, Dalí Gallery, Instituto Cervantes, Rome, Italy 2015 SCOPE Art Fair, NG Gallery, Miami, USA. (Art) xiomas, Cultural Center of Spain in Miami, USA. ARTBO Art Fair, Gallery Havana, Bogotá, Colombia. New colors, Robert Miller Gallery, New York, USA. Crack, Collateral to the 12th Biennial, Havana Gallery, Havana, Cuba. Zona Franca, Collateral to the 12th Havana Biennial, Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabaña, Havana, Cuba. HB 3, Exhibition of Contemporary Cuban Art, Collateral to the 12th Havana Biennial, Pabexpo, Havana, Cuba. 95 Territories, Galiano Gallery, Havana, Cuba. Ethical and aesthetic, International Press Center, Havana, Cuba. Engraving in Cuba, Rider University, USA. 2014 MIAMI PINTA Art Fair, CoGaleria, Miami, USA. ARTBO Art Fair, Gallery Havana, Bogotá, Colombia. The utility of history, Havana Factory, Havana, Cuba. Salon of Contemporary Cuban Art, Development Center for the Visual Arts, Havana, Cuba. Post-It 2, Art is 718 Gallery, Havana, Cuba. Cachiplun, Factory Cuban Art, Havana, Cuba. 2.3 Almacén, Havana Gallery, Havana, Cuba. Pink, Collage Gallery, Havana, Cuba. 2013 Post-It, Galiano Gallery, Havana, Cuba. Engraving Salon, Center for Development of Visual Arts, Havana, Cuba. Full genre, Embassy of Spain in Cuba, La Havana, Cuba. Cuba Contemporary, Cultural Center Manoir Cologny, Geneva. Facing the sun, Ruben Martinez Villena, UNEAC, Havana, Cuba. 2012 Season, San Alejandro Academy, Collateral to the 11th Biennial of Havana, Havana, Cuba. Project Open House, Collateral to the 11th Biennial of Havana, Havana, Cuba. Collective project, Ludwig Foundation of Cuba, Collateral to the 11th Biennial of Havana, Havana, Cuba. 2011 Boomerang, San Alejandro Academy, Havana, Cuba. Collective inventory, Ludwig Foundation, Havana, Cuba. 96 2009 Salon of Contemporary Cuban Art, Clone digital Ludwig Foundation Project Development Center of Visual Arts, Havana, Cuba. 2008 Collateral Havana Biennial, Ludwig Foundation of Cuba Havana, Havana, Cuba. 2007 Engraving Salon, Center for Development of Visual Arts, Havana, Cuba. 2006 Proyecto San Alejandro, Ninth Havana Biennial, National Academy of Fine Arts San Alejandro, Havana, Cuba 2003 Made in Krause, Luz y Oficio gallery, Havana, Cuba. 2002 Academic, Academy of San Alejandro, Havana, Cuba Awards and Honors 2014 - First Prize, Post it 2, Arts is 718, Havana, Cuba. 2013 - Engraving Salon mention, Center for Development of Visual Arts, Havana, Cuba. Other activities 2013-2014 - Donation of works for auctions American Friends of the Ludwig Foundation of Cuba. 2012-2013 - Donation of works for auction by the fight against cancer, organized by the Canadian Embassy in Cuba. ALEJANDRO FIGUEREDO DÍAZ-PERERA Born in Havana, Cuba. Lives and Works in Los Angeles. EDUCATION 2014 - Instituto Superior de Arte, Department of Visual Arts 2010 - BA San Alejandro Fine Arts Academy, Havana, Cuba SOLO AND TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS 2017 Aspect/Ratio (forthcoming), Chicago, IL Safe Harbor, Visual Arts Gallery, with Cara Megan Lewis as Díaz Lewis, curated by Allison Lacher, University of Illinois, Springfield, IL Mumbai Art Room, with Cara Megan Lewis as Díaz Lewis, Focus Festival Mumbai, Bombay, India Making Plans, with Cara Megan Lewis as Díaz Lewis, Human Resources, Los Angeles, CA 2016 A Home Coming (revisited), Chicago Artists Coalition, Chicago, IL 2015 A Dream Deferred, with Cara Megan Lewis as Díaz Lewis, Aspect/Ratio, Chicago, IL Cul-De- Sac, with Cara Megan Lewis as Díaz Lewis, The Mission, Chicago, IL In The Absence of a Body, Chicago Artist Coalition, Chicago, IL 2014 A Home coming, with Cara Megan Lewis as Díaz Lewis, Antena Space, Chicago, IL Drawing a Blank, Garcia Squared Contemporary, Kansas City, MO 2012 Dopamine, 11th Havana Biennial, ISA, Havana, Cuba GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2017 (Yet Untitled), curated by Maurizzio Hector Pineda, Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA (forthcoming) Sonique, Centro Hispanoamericano de Cultura in Havana, Cuba 2016 Home Land Security, with Cara Megan Lewis as Díaz Lewis, curated by Cheryl Haines, For-Site Foundation, San Francisco, CA Present Standard, curated by Edra Soto and Josue Pellot, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL 34,000 Pillows, with Cara Megan Lewis as Díaz Lewis, David Weinberg Gallery, Chicago, IL 2015 Material Monumental Normal, curated by Alberto Aguilar, Riverside Arts Center, Riverside, IL In You is the Presence, curated by Rachel Herman, Mary-Frances and Bill Veeck Gallery, Chicago, IL 2014 Senselab, Center for the Development of Visual Arts, Havana, Cuba Now is the Closest Approximation of the Future, curated by Marilyn Volkman, Center for the Development of Visual Arts, Havana, Cuba 2013 SMS: Simultaneous Moments of Silence, as Díaz Lewis; EXPO Chicago, IL and Garcia Squared Contemporary, Kansas City, MO Bring Your Own Beamer: An international happening of moving image art, CoProsperity Sphere, Chicago, IL The Space, Feelings and Information, Gallery Luz y Oficios, Havana, Cuba Moving Forward is a Perceptual Problem, International Festival of Video Art, (FIVAC), Camaguey, Cuba F5, Center for the Development of Visual Arts, Havana, Cuba 97 2012 A Question of Time, Salle Zéro, Alianza Francesa, Havana, Cuba Amusements, Nelson Dominguez Gallery, Havana, Cuba ZOOM, 11th Havana Biennial, Department of Visual Arts, ISA, Havana, Cuba Project Part Time, 11th Havana Biennial, Elsinor Gallery, ISA, Havana, Cuba From AVI to MPG, 11th Havana Biennial, ISA, Havana, Cuba 2011 I also believe, Teodoro Ramos Blanco Gallery, Cerro, Cascarilla Project, Havana Cuba 2009 Pasillo Negro, 10th Havana Biennial, San Alejandro Academy of Art, Cascarilla Project, Havana, Cuba PERFORMANCES 2015 A waiting, April 10th, performance with Cara Megan Lewis at Aspect/Ratio, Chicago, IL 2014 The Other’s Voice, DfbrL8r Gallery, Chicago, IL Air Pocket Project, DfbrL8r Gallery, Chicago, IL Rapid Pulse Performing Arts Festival, DfbrL8r Gallery, Chicago, IL WORKSHOPS AND RESIDENCIES 2016 DCASE Cultural Center of Chicago, with the support of the Joyce Foundation, Chicago, IL 2015 BOLT Studio Residency at Chicago Artists Coalition, Chicago, IL 2014 Senselab workshop with Andrea SunderPlassman, ISA, Havana, Cuba 2013 Timebased art practice workshop with Gabriel Orozco, Playa Baracoa, Cuba 98 ArtistinResidence at ACRE, Steuben, WI, USA Visiting Artist at Harold Washington College, Chicago, IL, USA 2012 Photography workshop with Andrés Serrano, ISA, Havana, Cuba Workshop with Marina Abromovic, 11th Havana Biennial, ISA, Havana, Cuba 2011 Video and new media workshop with Celia and Junior, ISA, Havana, Cuba 2009 Workshop with autistic children at Dora Alonso School with San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba Critical studies and curatorial workshop with Antonio Sovanes, National Fine Arts Museum, Havana, Cuba BIBLIOGRAPHY Matt Strongberg, “Inventive Responses to Labor and Immigration Issues at Human Resources,” Hyperallergic, March 23, 2017 Rob Marks, “Home Land Security,” Frieze Magazine, January-February, 2017 Gabrielle Gopinath, “Home Land Security at The Presidio,” SFAQ, December 15, 2016 San Francisco Examiner, “Pillow Talk,” December 8, 2016 Franck Mercuio, “Local Artists Create Immersive Environments at EXPO Chicago,” Chicago Gallery News, September 23, 2016 San Francisco Travel, “Why you Need to Check Out Home Land Security at The Presidio,” September 9, 2016 Jori Finkel, “A ‘Home Land Security’ Art Show, at the Foot of the Golden Gate Bridge,” The New York Times, June 23, 2016 Jenny Lam, “Top 10 Exhibitions,” TimeOut Chicago, January 4, 2016 The Creators Project, “[Best of 2015] The Year in Performance Art,” December, 2015 Jason Foumberg, “Top 5 Chicago,” Chicago Magazine, October 15, 2015 Noah Hanna, “Portrait of the Artist: Alejandro Figueredo Diaz-Perera,” New City Chicago, August 3, 2015 Robin Dluzen, “Díaz Lewis,” Visual Art Source, June 2015 Kate Sierzputowski, “Politics and a Performer Hidden Inside a Gallery’s Walls,” Hyperallergic, February 23, 2015 Priscilla Frank, “Cuban Artist To Spend Three Weeks Living In A Crawl Space Behind Gallery Walls,” Huffington Post, February 18, 2015 JORGE OTERO ESCOBAR Havana, Cuba, 1982 EDUCATION Graduated from Arts Superior Institute (ISA in Spanish) of Havana, Cuba. Is Member of Cuban Artistes and Writers Union (UNEAC in Spanish). EXPOS (SUMMARY) 2017 - Group Show Disembodied panopticum (shifting metaphor), Rosphoto, San Petersburgo, Russia 2017 - Scope Art Fair, NY, U.S.A 2017 - Group Show 82W / Six Degrees Of Separation, Thomas Center, Gainesville, U.S.A 2016 - Group Show (Art)Xiomas - CUBA AHORA: The Next Generation, DC, U.S.A 2016 - Solo Show Scope Art Fair, Basel, Switzerland. 2016 - Group Show Rostock Art museum Kuba Libre, Rostock, Germany 2015 - Scope Art Fair, Miami, U.S.A 2015 - Chaco Art Fair, Santiago de Chile, Chile. 2015 - ArtBog, Bogotá, Colombia. 2015 - ArtVerona, Verona, Italia. 2015 - Swab Art Fair, Barcelona, España. 2015 - Group Show Nuevos Colores, Robert Miller Art Gallery, NY, U.S.A. 2015 - Group Show HB Muestra de Arte Cubano Comtemporaneo, 12 Bienal de la Habana, Pabexpo, Havana, Cuba. 2015 - Solo Show Cascara, Zona Franca, 12 Bienal de la Habana, Cuba. 2015 - Solo Show War Hero, Habana Art Gallery, Cuba. 2014 - Group Show Nadie sabe lo que puede un cuerpo, Fabrica de Arte Cubano, Havana, Cuba. 2014 Scope Art Fair, Miami, U.S.A. 2014 - Seletc Art Fair, Miami, U.S.A 2014 - Seletc Art Fair, New York, U.S.A. 2013 - Pulse Art Fair, Miami, U.S.A. 2013 - Group Show Tócate, Habana Art Gallery, Cuba. 2013 - Group Show Sex in the city, Acacia Art Gallery. 2012 - Group Show Regars croises, Cuba-Provence, Aix en Provence, France. 2012 - Solo Show Orientalistas, South Border Art Gallery, Beirut, Líbano. 2012 - Group Show La Seducción de la Mirada, Photograph of the body in Cuba from XIX century to 2012. Hispanoamerican Center of Cultures, La Habana, Cuba. 2012 - Me.Na.Sa.Art.Beirut Art Fair, Líbano. 2012 - Madrid Foto, Madrid, Spain. 2011 - Project Itinerancia artística de la punta al cabo y la isla también, Cuba. 2010 - Group Show, Estresisimo, Habana Art Gallery, Havana, Cuba. 2009 - Solo Show, Amahoro Art Gallery. San Martín, Francia. 2008 - Group Show, The body are bodies , Jesús Gallardo Art Gallery, León, Guanajuato, Mexico. 2008 - Solo Show Epidermis, Fototeca de Cuba, La Habana, Cuba. 2002 - Solo Show Physiology of the Antibody, La Casona Art Gallery, La habana, Cuba Finished studies 1997-2001 - High Arts Academy San Alejandro. 2003-2008 - Arts Superior Institute, Havana City, Cuba. AWARDS 2015 - Residence Gilbert Brownstone Foundation, Paris, France. 2012 - Residence Arts & Partage Fundation, Aix en Provence, France. 99 2010 - Grand prize of International Concourse Santiago Alvares, Santiago de Cuba Cuba. 2009 - First prize of the national concourse Theme and Variations, French Alliance, Havana City, Cuba. 2009 - First Prize, Fourth National Biennial of Photography Alfredo Sarabia in memorian, Pinar del Rio, Cuba. 2007 - Mention of Third National Biennial of Photography Alfredo Sarabia in memorian, Pinar del Rio, Cuba. 2007 - Mention at National Meeting of Engraving, Developmental Center of Visuals Arts, Havana City, Cuba. COLLECTIONS Gilbert Brownstone Foundation (Francia) Foundation Lluis Coromina (España) Luciano Benetton (Italia) Gary Wassermann Foundation (U.S.A) DIANA FONSECA QUIÑONES Havana, Cuba, 1978 STUDIES 2005 - Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA). Havana, Cuba. 2000 - Academia de Bellas Artes de San Alejandro. Havana, Cuba. SOLO SHOWS 2015 - La razón de lo irreal (The Unreal’s Reason), Galería Villa Manuela. Havana, Cuba. 2012 - Made in my mind, Centro de Desarrollo de las Artes Plásticas. Havana, Cuba. 2005 - Jardín (Garden), Graduación del Instituto Superior de Arte, Fundación Ludwig. Havana, Cuba. 2000 - A contra luz (Againts the Light), Academia de Bellas Artes San Alejandro. Havana, Cuba. 100 GROUP SHOWS 2015 By the Book, Sean Kelly Gallery. New York, USA. Proyecto Alto Riesgo (High Risk Project), Jhon Lennon’s Park, side event to the XII Bienal de La Habana. Havana, Cuba. Sin oficios ni beneficios (Without a job or benefit), Galería La Moderna, side event to the XII Bienal de La Habana. Havana, Cuba. Proyecto Colectivo (Group Project), Co-Gallery/Six Six Contemporary Art, side event to the XII Bienal de La Habana. Havana, Cuba. 2013 Dilated Biography, Contemporary Cuban Narratives, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Boston, USA. 2012 Herejes del vacío (Emptiness Miscreant), Galería Habana. Havana, Cuba. 2011 Inside confluencias, Arte Cubano Contemporáneo, National Hispanic Cultural Center. New México, USA. Sprai. Kubanische, Kun Hochhaus Hansa. Dortmund, Germany. Frendly pakeoven, E105 studio art land .21. Bonn, Germany. 2010 Parables of the water, Hanson Street Project Space, WaspsArtists’ Studios. Glasgow, Scotland. 2008 V Salón de Arte Cubano Contemporáneo, Centro de Desarrollo de las Artes Visuales CDAV. Havana, Cuba. Globalizados (Globalized), Festival Internacional de Cultura de Boyaca. Tunja, Colombia. Mujeres (Woman), Galería Habana. Zurich, Zwitzerland. State of Exchange, INIVA. London, England. Endurance, VIVID. Birmingham, England. Arboleda, el cuerpo es cuerpo (Grove, Body is Body), Festival internacional de Arte Contemporáneo Jesús Gallardo. Guanajuato, Mexico. 2006 Salón de Arte Digital, Centro Pablo de la Torriente Brau. Havana, Cuba. Enjoy, 3rd edition, Centro Cultural Jardines de La Tropica,l side event to the IX Bienal de La Habana. Havana, Cuba. Hjertebank (Heartbeat), National Museum of Art, Design and Architecture. Oslo, Norway. Trans it, Centro Provincial de Artes Plásticas y Diseño Luz y Oficios. Havana, Cuba. 2005 Osnabrueck, European Media Art Festival. Berlin, Germany. 2004 Por nuestra cuenta y riesgo, Galería Luis de Soto, Facultad de Artes y Letras de la Universidad de La Habana. Havana, Cuba. New Yo, Centro Provincial de Artes Plásticas y Diseño Luz y Oficios. Havana, Cuba. 2002 Llega y pon, side event to the III Salón de Arte Cubano Contemporáneo, Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA). Havana, Cuba. AWARDS AND SCHOLARSHIPS 2015 Acquisition Award EFG Bank & ArtNexus. Bogotá, Colombia. 2008 Residencia Batiscafo, Triangle Art Trus. Fundación Hivos, Inglaterra. 2004 1st Prize, Festival Imago 2004, Facultad de Comunicación Audiovisual, Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA). Havana, Cuba. 1999 1st Prize, Tercer Salón de Estudiantes de Arte. Holguín, Cuba. 1998 1st Prize, Segundo Salón de Estudiantes de Arte José Antonio Díaz. Trinidad, Cuba. COLLECTIONS EFG Bank & ArtNexus. Bogotá, Colombia. Museum of Contemporary Art of North Carolina, North Carolina, USA. ALEX HERNÁNDEZ DUEÑAS Havana, Cuba, 1982 EDUCATION 2004 - National Academy of Fine Arts San Alejandro, Havana. Cuba. 2010 - Higher Institute of Art, Havana. Cuba. ARTIST RESIDENCIES 2012 - Cleveland Institute of Art, USA. 2010 - Scholarship for artists and curators granted by the Danish Arts Agency. Copenhagen Denmark. 2008 - Scholarship for artists and curators granted by the Peter and Irene Ludwig Foundation. Aachen, Germany. 2008 - Residence IAAB of Christoph Merriam Foundation Basel, Switzerland. PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY Member, National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC), Havana. PERSONAL EXHIBITIONS 2016 Aesthetic Militancy, Andreas Binder Gallery, Munich, Germany (Bi-personal exhibition with Ariamna Contino) 2015 Alex Hernandez, Ocatvia Art Gallery, Huston, Texas, USA. Road to Eden, Alex Hernandez Y Ariamna Contino, Zona franca, Morro-Cabaña Park 12 Biennial of Havana, Cuba. 2014 Tournament, Servando Gallery, Havana, Cuba. Seasons, Galiano Gallery, Havana, Cuba. 101 2012 SEASON, JMC Building, Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, USA. 2010 Havana-Miami, La estética del acomodo. Ludwig Foundation of Cuba. Havana, Cuba. COLLECTIVE EXHIBITIONS Archive collection, National Museum of Fine Art, La Habana, Cuba. Art fair in Context, New York, Represent for La Acaica Gallery Overseas. Cuba and The Bahamas. Contemporary Art of the Caribbean, Contemporary art center Halle 14, Leipzig, Germany. Incomplete Register, Havana Gallery, La Habana, Cuba Co-lectiva, Providencia Montecarmelo Cultural Institute, Chile Armory Show, Art Fair, New York. Represent for Havana Gallery Geomtrics, Andreas Binder Gallery, Munich, Germany 2016 Chinas boxes, La Acacia Gallery, La Havana, Cuba Art Fair ARTMiami, Pan American Art Project, Miami, USA. Art Fair ARTMiami, Andreas Binder Gallery, Miami, USA. Insular line (Collateral exhibition of Artbo Art Fair, La Cometa Gallery, Bogota, Colombia CHACO Art Fair, CoGallery, Chile. Duchamp’s silence, Havana factory, Havana, Cuba. Chaotic, Ernst Hilger Gallery, Viena, Austria. Subject and predicated, Cuban Art Factory, Havana, Cuba. (Art)xiomas, Museum of the Americas, Washington, USA. Blurred traditions, Villa Manuela Gallery, Havana, Cuba. Iran x Cuba: Beyond the headline, Rogue Space Chelsea, USA. Free Cuba, Ludwig de Koblenz Museum, Germany Art Fair ArtLima, Evolución Gallery, Lima, Peru Art Fair ArtLima, CoGalería Gallery , Lima, Peru The mother of all the arts, Wifredo Lam Center, Havana, Cuba. Ascension, Nacional Library of Cuba, Havana, Cuba. 2015 SCOPE Art Fair, NG Gallery, Miami, USA. 102 (Art) xiomas, Cultural Center of Spain in Miami, USA Sphere, Gallery Veerbeck van Dyck, Antwerp Belgium Summer, Octavia Gallery, New Orleans, USA. Pintura fresca II, Gallery Havana, Havana, Cuba. HB 3, PABEXPO, Havana 12 Biennial of Havana, Cuba. Crack, Havana Gallery, 12 Biennial of Havana, Cuba. Zona Franca, Morro-Cabaña Park 12 Biennial of Havana, Cuba. 2014 Scope, Collage Gallery, Miami, USA. La utilidad de la historia, Factory, Havana, Cuba. X 2, Show of Contemporary Art, Development Center for the Visual Arts, Havana, Cuba. Cuban Art crossroads, Nina Torres Fine Art, Miami, USA. Post-It 2, Collage Habana Gallery, Havana, Cuba. Summer Solstice, Ocatvia Art Gallery, Huston, Texas, USA. 2013 Visitante, Embassy of Spain in Cuba, Havana, Cuba. The new, LaGaleríaCubana, Boston, USA. Alex Hernandez and Karlos Pérez, Octavia Gallery, New Orleans, USA. 2012 La mala forma, 11th Biennial of Havana, Morro-Cabaña, Havana, Cuba. Havana Open House, 11th Havana Biennial, Servando Gallery, Havana, Cuba. 2011 Cuban project, Cleverland Comteporary Museum of Art, Cleverland, USA. The 7th and 60, Art 12 Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium. The border 11, Lineart fair, The art fair, Gent, Belgium. 2010 El extremo de la bala, Cuba Pavilion. Havana, Cuba. El doble juego de la mirada, René Portocarrero Gallery, National Theatre Covarrubias hall of Cuba, Havana, Cuba. 2009 On Screen, Krannert Art Museum, Illinois, United States. Panoramic Presents: On hospitality, In and Out of Context, Hub, New Museum, New York, USA. Here and Now, Special Projects, JoburgArtFair, South Africa. Proyecto Inventario, Tenth Havana Biennial, Ludwig Foundation of Cuba, Havana, Cuba. Un mundo feliz, Tenth Havana Biennial, National Library of Cuba. Havana, Cuba. 2008 States of Exchange, Iniva Museum, London. Cubanos convertibles, Gallery, Havana, Cuba. Proyecto Inventario, Ludwig of Cuba, Havana, Cuba. Foundation El reparto, World Cities Gallery, Havana, Cuba. 2007 Sujetos invisibles, Rufino Tamayo Museum. Mexico City, Mexico Infinite Island, Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA. Masa critica, Center of Development of Visual Arts, Havana, Cuba. Ni a favor ni en contra, sino todo lo contrario, Faculty of Arts and Letters, University of Havana. Havana, Cuba. Visitaciones al heroe, Zero Lounge, Alliance Francaise Cuba. Havana, Cuba. 2006 Sixth National Exhibition of New Filmmakers, Cuban Film Institute and Film Industry (ICAIC). Havana, Cuba. Ingenio 400, Displays of short films online, net art and video art. Caja Madrid. 2005 Young Cuban Art, Art Gallery San Juan, Guadalajara, Mexico. 2004 Graficonducta, Gallery Fresa y chocolate. Cinematographic Cultural Center (ICAIC). Havana, Cuba. National Engraving, Contemporary Art Center Wifredo Lam, Havana, Cuba. Norrtalje Havana, Gallery Konstall, Norrtalje, Sweden. AWARDS 1st Prize for fiction in the Sixth Exhibition of Young Filmmakers of ICAIC. Honorable mention in the contest Script of the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation. 1st Prize at the International Workshop San Alejandro. JURY Jury in a Contest, Post it 2, 2014 TONY LABAT Since the late seventies, Cuban-born Tony Labat has developed a body of work in performance, video, sculpture, and installation dealing with the body, popular culture, identity, urban relations, politics, and the media. Labat has exhibited internationally over the last 35 years, received numerous awards and grants, and his work is in many private and public collections. Recent exhibitions include the 11th Havana Biennial; Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York; Anglim-Gilbert Gallery, San Francisco; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, ASU Art Museum, Phoenix, The Basque Museum, Spain. PAC, Milan, Italy, and Figueroa-Vives Studio, Havana, Cuba. JUAN CARLOS ALOM Juan Carlos Alom was born in Havana, Cuba in 1964. He is a photographer and filmmaker. He is among the island’s most influential photographers and experimental filmmakers. Alom’s work is an inquiry into the hallmarks of the Cuban psyche. Delving into his seductive visual universe takes us on a stunning journey through contemporary daily life on the Island: its beliefs, superstitions, desires, and chimeras, often echoing the magical realism so dear to Cuban culture. In 1990 he enrolled in the Department of Semiotics and Journalism at the University of Havana. His work has been exhibited internationally in Galleries and Museums. His works are in major International and National collections, both public and private. In 2000 Time Magazine selected him as among the top ten photographers of the Millennial in Latin America. 103 FRANCISCO MASÓ Born 1988 in Havana, Cuba. Lives and works in Miami. EDUCATION 2014 – 2009 Bachelor’s Degree Stage Design. Higher Arts Institute. Havana, Cuba. 2009 – 2008 Behavior Art School (Cátedra Arte de Conducta) led by Tania Bruguera. Havana, Cuba. 2007 – 2003 San Alejandro Fine Arts Academy. Havana, Cuba. Specialty: Printmaker. WORKSHOPS 2008 Lillebit Fadraga. Behavior Art School. Havana. Cuba Hamlet Fernández. Behavior Art School. Havana. Cuba Rocío Gracía Ipiña. Behavior Art School. Havana. Cuba Mailyn Machado. Behavior Art School. Havana. Cuba Dan Perjosvchi. Behavior Art School. Havana. Cuba Fernando Sánchez Castillo. Behavior Art School. Havana. Cuba Rirkrit Tiravanija. Behavior Art School. Havana. Cuba Darys Vázquez. Behavior Art School. Havana. Cuba Artur mijewski. Behavior Art School. Havana. Cuba 2014 - Art director film and TV. Conducted by Mariana Barioni. Escuela Internacional de Cine y TV (EICTV). San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba. 2013 SenseLAB. Curated by Andrea Sunder-Plassmann, Frency Fernández and Dagmar Wohler. Higher Arts Institute. Havana, Cuba. 2011 Celia and Junior. Higher Arts Institute. Havana, Cuba. José A. Vincench. Higher Arts Institute. Havana, Cuba. Hella Prokoph. Higher Arts Institute. Havana, Cuba. 104 RESIDENCY 2009 Bétonsalon Residency. Contemporary Art Center Bétonsalon. Paris, France. www.archivoartstudio.com info@archivoartstudio.com +1 (786) 970 3381 SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2013 Psychometric. Provincial Center of Visual Arts and Design. Havana, Cuba. 2012 Post PostProducción Project. Inventario 144, Ludwig Foundation of Cuba. Havana, Cuba. 2008 Exhumus Corpus. Galiano Gallery. Havana, Cuba. ACTIONS 2011 Migratory Paths or Nomads Displacements. Havana, Cuba. SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2016 The Art of the Collection and More. Kendall Art Center. Kendall, United States. Global South. Visions and Revisions. Pinta Miami. 10th Edition Crossing Cultures. Mana Wynwood. Miami, United States. 2015 Ojalá! Zeitgenössische kubanische Kunst - Cuban Contemporary Art. Bonn, Germany. Ethical and aesthetic. Young Cuban Art. Internacional Press Center. Havana, Cuba. 2014 xl 2 (por el dos) 6th Contemporary Cuban Art Salon. Development Center for the Visual Arts. Havana, Cuba. 2013 Weekly Package. Development Center for the Visual Arts. Havana, Cuba. The Space, the Senses and the Information. Provincial Center of Visual Arts and Design. Havana, Cuba. SenseLAB. Development Center for the Visual Arts. Havana, Cuba. 2012 XIX Salón de la Ciudad. Provincial Center of Visual Arts and Design. Havana, Cuba. From AVI to MPEG. 11th Havana Biennial. Visual Arts Faculty. Higher Arts Institute. Havana, Cuba. Part Time. 11th Havana Biennial. Theatrical Arts Faculty. Higher Arts Institute. Havana, Cuba. Arte no es Fácil. Links Hall Chicago’s Center for Independent Dance and Performance Arts. Chicago, United States. 2011 XI Digital Art Salon. Pablo de la Torriente Brau Cultural Center. Havana, Cuba. Operación 13. Theatrical Arts Faculty. Higher Arts Institute. Havana, Cuba. XVII Erotic Art Salon. Fayad Jamis Gallery. Havana, Cuba. 2010 La Virgen de Todos. QbaVa Gallery. New Jersey, United States. Cuban Art Factory (FAC). Pabexpo. Havana, Cuba. 2009 Per Diem. Contemporary Art Center Bétonsalon. Paris, France. Salón de Artes Audiovisuales La Habana Digital Arte + Nuevas Tecnologías. II Festival de Arte y Literatura Joven Arte + La Casona Cultural Center. Havana, Cuba. Estado de Excepción, 10th Havana Biennial. Havana Gallery. Havana, Cuba. 2008 Esto no es lo que parece, University of Havana. Havana, Cuba. www.archivoartstudio.com info@archivoartstudio.com +1 (786) 970 3381 XIV Erotic Art Salon. Fayad Jamis Gallery. Havana, Cuba. COLLECTIONS Brillembourg Capriles Collection. C de Cuba Collection. PUBLICATIONS 2016 - Abstracción Sólida: la producción de Francisco Masó en el contexto de la abstracción latinoamericana. Aldeide Delgado. Arte al Limite. https://www.arteallimite.com/2016/12/abstraccion-solida-laproduccion-francisco-maso-contexto-la-abstraccion-latinoamericana/ 2013 - Proyecto Post PostProducción. Francisco Masó. C de Cuba Magazine. Printed Magazine El intercambio como estrategia artística. Estela Ferrer. Cuba Now Digital Magazine. Francisco Masó: otra dinámica de la imagen visual. Magaly Espinosa. El Correo del Archivo José Veigas. No. 14. Proyecto Post PostProducción, haciendo arte desde la piratería. Estela Ferrer. Cuba Now Digital Magazine. Aprovechar el delito para hacer arte delincuencia igual-igual... Julio Cesar Llópiz. Noticias Arte Cubano. LECTURES 2012 - Post PostProducción Project. Ludwig Foundation of Cuba. Havana, Cuba. 2014 - Meetings about Contemporary Art. Cuba Pavilion. Havana, Cuba. Show Room. Wifredo Lam Center of Contemporary Art. Havana, Cuba. La Red Educational Project. Development Center for the Visual Arts. Havana, Cuba. AWARDS 2011 - 3rd Place XV Erotic Art Salon. Fayad Jamis Gallery. Havana, Cuba. 2010 - 1st Place II Salón Martiano de Artes Plásticas. José Martí Memorial. Havana, Cuba. 2008 - 3rd Place XIII Erotic Art Salon. Fayad Jamis Gallery. Havana, Cuba. 105 REYNIER LEYVA NOVO Havana, Cuba, 1983 “From a historical perspective, I would like to address the relationship between the United States and Cuba. I also want to play with topics such as racism, war, nationalism, migration, related to American history and with the history of Cuba itself.” - Reynier Leyva Novo Reynier Leyva Novo (born 1983) lives and works in Havanna. He has participated in several exhibitions in Cuba as well as at the Venice Biennale (2011), the MARTE (Museum of Contemporary art) San Salvador, El Salvador (2011), and the Liverpool biennial, UK (2010). In 2015, Novo was featured in the New York Times and also Vanity Fair as “One of the 6 Cuban Artists You Should Know”. These features came on the heels of several of his works just being acquired by major institutions such as the Pérez Art Museum (PAMM) in Miami, Florida, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., and the Walker Art Center in Minnesota. With a great interest in the history of his country, Reynier Leyva Novo explores, questions and stages different versions of Cuba’s past. He focuses in particular on the period around Cuba’s liberation from Spain in 1898. These pieces can also be interpreted in relation to the current socialist society of Cuba and its strong nationalism. For his Margin Notes series, Novo begins with clippings of the Cuban “Granma” newspaper: “I read the newspaper daily and clip small figures or texts which then I mix or intertwine to alter the original meaning they had when first published, generating unprecedented images of strong political load, interspersed with irony, poetry and humor.” COLLECTIONS INCLUDE National Museum of Fine Arts, La Habana, Cuba. Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York,USA. PA Museum, Miami, USA. Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Oregon, USA. CIFO-Europa, Spain. Fundación Misol, Bogota, Colombia. Reynier Leyva Novo graduated from the José Antonio Díaz Peláez Experimental Art Center in 1998, the San Alejandro School of Fine Arts in 2003, and the Department of Behavior Art (directed by Tania Bruguera) in 2007; from 2004 to 2008 he studied at the Instituto Superior de Arte (all in Havana, Cuba). His tenure in the Department of Art Practice was a significant step in his growth as a creator. Also knowledge acquired during his unfinished stay at the Higher Institute of Arts motivated him to seek new conceptual experiences. Reynier Leyva Novo is of a new generation of Cuban artists too young to have witnessed the Revolution in its heyday and may remember with a child’s perception the period of privation following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. 106 Farber Collection, New York, USA. Pizzuti Collection, Ohio, USA. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., USA Walker Art Center in Minnesota, USA. PRESS Vanity Fair’s “6 Cuban Artists You Should Know,” 2015 The New York Times, “Inside the 2015 Havana Biennial” ESTERIO SEGURA Santiago de Cuba, 1970 Graduated at Superior Institute of Arts, Havana 1994. Co-curator of Metáforas del Templo and author of sculptures made for film Fresa y Chocolate by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea. Member of the Cuban Artists and Writers Union, the International Association of Plastic Artists and the International Red UNESCO-ASCHBERG. He has more than 40 personal and 60 collective art exhibition in important galleries and museums around the world. Collections in National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana. Museum of Modern Art and Bronx Museum, New York. Latin American Art Museum of the University of Essex, England. Arizona University Museum. Private Collections in Cuba, France, Germany, England, United States, Holland, Portugal, Mexico, Colombia, Trinidad & Tobago, Argentine, Israel, Italy, Spain, Canada, South Africa. Private collections in Cuba, North and South America, Europe and Africa. 107 108 GALLERY TWO 109 110 99 111 Yoshua Okón was born in Mexico City in 1970 where he currently lives. His work, like a series of nearsociological experiments executed for the camera, blends staged situations, documentation and improvisation and questions habitual perceptions of reality and truth, selfhood and morality. In 2002 he received an MFA from UCLA with a Fulbright scholarship. His solo shows exhibitions include: Yoshua Okón: In the Land of Ownership, Tokio; Saló Island, UC Irvine, Irvine; Piovra, Kaufmann Repetto, Milan; Poulpe, Mor Charpentier, Paris; Octopus, Cornerhouse, Manchester and Hammer Museum, Los Angeles and SUBTITLE, Städtische Kunsthalle, Munich. His group exhibitions include: Manifesta 11, Zurich; Gwangju Biennale, Korea; Antes de la resaca, MUAC, Mexico City; Incongruous, Musèe Cantonal des Beux-Arts, Lausanne; The Mole’s Horizon, Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels; Mercosur Biennial, Porto Alegre; Amateurs, CCA Wattis; San Francisco; Laughing in a Foreign Language, Hayward Gallery, London; Adaptive Behavior, New Museum, NY and Mexico City: an exhibition about the exchange rates between bodies and values, PS1, MoMA, NY, and Kunstwerke, Berlin. His work is included in the collections of Tate Modern, Hammer Museum, LACMA, Colección Jumex and MUAC, among others. 112 ORACLE BY YOSHUA OKÓN: An Introduction Melissa Tran An endless road. The desert landscape. Dust clouding our vision. Sounds of engines revving and gun shots firing into the open. As we enter the immersive installation of Yoshua Okón’s Oracle, we simultaneously enter the constructed space of Oracle, Arizona. Stepping back into time: it’s 2014—feeling all too familiar with the present. It was in this space that the largest-yet protest against the entrance of unaccompanied children from Central America into the United States took place. The artist spoke to the leaders who orchestrated the protest, a militia called the Arizona Border Protectors, and they agreed to create staged scenes based on their extreme nationalist ideology as well as a live reenactment of the protest. The protestors plant flags, unsteadily, in the rocky terrain—laying claim to the land. A recurring scene showcases a white truck doing donuts in the desert with two flags flying proudly behind. The driver fires shots out the window as he circles. Ants scurry feverishly over earth and over empty bullet shells in a nonsensical frenzy. Transcending language, the driver honks a universal warning of caution. I can’t help but continue to notice these manmade marks left on the ground, as the truck’s tires have worn down the earth over time. These marks act as a kind of metaphor for marking one’s territory, creating borders, and defending the very earth he is razing. As the dust settles, we are reminded of the temporal nature of borders. In stark contrast to the videos is a single, quiet photograph. Nine immigrant children sing a modified version of the US Marine’s Hymn—glorifying and narrating US invasions around the world. Trapped in this medium the children’s voices remain silent. They face away from us. Anonymous. 113 ORACLE POR YOSHUA OKÓN: Una introducción Melissa Tran Un camino sin fin. El paisaje del desierto. Polvo nublando nuestra visión. Sonidos de los motores arrancando y disparos de armas de tiro a la distancia. Al entrar en la instalación de inmersión de Oracle de Yoshua Okón, que al mismo tiempo entrar en el construido espacio de Oracle, Arizona. Dando un paso atrás en el tiempo: es 2014 - sentirnos muy familiarizado con el presente. Fue en este espacio donde la protesta más grande aun en contra la entrada de niños no acompañados de Centroamérica en los Estados Unidos llevó a cabo. El artista habló con los líderes que orquestaron la protesta, una milicia llamada Los Protectores de la Frontera de Arizona, y estuvieron de acuerdo para crear escenas protagonizando en función de su ideología nacionalista extrema, así como una representación en vivo de la protesta. Los manifestantes plantan banderas, vacilante, en el terreno inestable - reclamando la tierra. Una escena recurrente presenta un camioneta blanca haciendo rosquillas en el desierto con dos banderas con orgullo detrás. El conductor efectúa disparos por la ventana mientras da vueltas. Las hormigas corretean febrilmente sobre la tierra y sobre casquillos de bala vacíos en un frenesí sin sentido. Trascendiendo el lenguaje, el conductor hace sonar una advertencia universal de precaución. No puedo dejar de notar estas marcas dejadas por el hombre en el suelo, ya que las llantas de la camioneta se han desgastado la tierra con el tiempo. Estas marcas actúan como una especie de metáfora para marcar su territorio, la creación de fronteras, y la defensa de la misma tierra que está arrasando. A medida que el polvo se asiente, se nos recuerda la naturaleza temporal de las fronteras. En marcado contraste con los videos es una sola fotografía, tranquila. Nueve niños inmigrantes cantar una modificada versión del Himno de la Marina de Estados Unidos glorificando y narra las invasiones de Estados Unidos en todo el mundo. Atrapado en este medio voces de los niños permanecen en silencio. Se enfrentan lejos de nosotros. Anónimo. 114 Yoshua Okón Oracle 2015 Still from 3-channel video installation 12:36 minutes looped 115 Yoshua Okón Oracle 2015 Still from 3-channel video installation 12:36 minutes looped 116 Yoshua Okón Oracle 2015 3-channel video installation 12:36 minutes looped 117 Yoshua Okón Oracle 2015 3-channel video installation 12:36 minutes looped 118 Yoshua Okón Oracle 2015 3-channel video installation 12:36 minutes looped 119 Yoshua Okón Oracle 2015 3-channel video installation 12:36 minutes looped 120 Yoshua Okón Oracle 2015 3-channel video installation 12:36 minutes looped 121 Yoshua Okón Oracle 2015 Still from 3-channel video installation 12:36 minutes looped 122 Yoshua Okón Oracle 2015 Still from 3-channel video installation 12:36 minutes looped 123 Yoshua Okón Oracle 2015 Still from 3-channel video installation 12:36 minutes looped 124 Yoshua Okón Oracle 2015 Still from 3-channel video installation 12:36 minutes looped 125 Yoshua Okón Oracle 2015 Still from 3-channel video installation 12:36 minutes looped 126 YOSHUA OKÓN Mexico City, 1970 EDUCATION 2000-2002 - MFA, UCLA, Los Angeles, USA. 1990-1994 - BFA, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2017 Miasma, Parque Galería, Mexico City, Mexico. 2016 Miasma, Testsite, Austin TX, USA. Yoshua Okón: Octopus, Artspace, Sydney, Australia. Yoshua Okón: In the Land of Ownership, Asakusa, Tokyo, Japan. Oracle, UMOCA, Utah, USA. 2015 Octopus, ASU Art Museum, Phoenix, USA. Oracle, ASU Art Museum, Phoenix, USA. The Indian Project: Rebuilding History, Mor Charpentier Gallery, París. Octopus, El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, USA. 2014 Yoshua Okón, Kake Gallery, Okayama, Japan. Yoshua Okón, Kurashiki University of the Science and the Arts, Okayama, Japan. Salò Island, UCI Contemporary Arts Center Gallery, Irvine, USA. 2013 Octopus, Cornerhouse, Manchester, UK. 2012 Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, Hayward Gallery. London, England. Latex, Fundación Alumnos 47, Mexico City, Mexico. Poulpe, Galerie Mor Charpentier, Paris, France. 2011 Obra Reciente, Revolver Galería, Lima, Peru. Hausmeister, Galería La Central, Bogota, Colombia. Pulpo, Casa Galván, Mexico City, Mexico. Piovra, Kaufmann Repetto, Milan, Italy. Octopus, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA. Coyoterías, Ignacio Liprandi Arte contemporáneo, Buenos Aires, Argentina. HH, Baró Galería, Sao Paulo, Brazil. 2010 Yoshua Okón: 2007-2010, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, USA. Hot Dog Stick, Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND), GLOW festival, Los Angeles, USA. 2009 Chille, Galería Gabriela Mistral, Santiago, Chile. Ventanilla Única, Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City, Mexico. Hipnostasis, in collaboration with Raymond Pettibon, Armory Center for the Arts, Los Angeles, USA. Canned Laughter, Viafarini DOCVA, Fabbrica del Vapore, Milan, Italy. 2008 SUBTITLE, Lothringer 13 - Städtische Kunsthalle München, Munich, Germany. MAVI, Galería Revolver, Lima, Peru. Art Wrestling, Art Perform, Art Basel Miami Beach, Miami, USA. 2007 Bocanegra, The Project, New York, USA. 2006 Saldo a Favor, Galería Espacio Mínimo, Madrid, Spain. Gaza Stripper, Herzeliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Herzeliya, Israel. 2005 Bocanegra, Galleria Francesca Kaufmann, Milan, Italy. Lago Bolsena, The Project, New York, USA. 2004 Yoshua Okon, Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros, Mexico City, Mexico. HCl, Galería Enrique Guerrero, Mexico City, Mexico. Shoot, The Project, Los Angeles, USA. 127 2003 Art Statements, Art Basel Miami, Galleria Francesca Kaufmann, Miami, USA. Cockfight, Galleria Francesca Kaufmann, Milan, Italy. 2002 Oríllese a la Orilla, Art & Public, Geneva, Switzerland. Yoshua Okon, Galería Enrique Guerrero, Mexico City, Mexico. New Decor, Black Dragon Society, Los Angeles, USA. 2000 Cockfight, Modern Culture, New York, USA. Oríllese a la Orilla, Centro de la Imagen, Mexico City, Mexico. Lo Mejor de lo Mejor, La Panadería, Mexico City, Mexico. 1998 Rise & Fall, Brasilica, Vienna, Austria. 1997 KOBLENZ, La Panadería, Mexico City, Mexico. Beautiful Fluffy Stylish Hairy Butts, Chorus, Minneapolis, USA. A Propósito, in collaboration with Miguel Calderón, La Panadería, Mexico City, Mexico. SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2017 Animal Farm, Kaufmann Repetto, New York, USA. Reverberaciones, MUAC Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City, Mexico. First Day of Good Weather, Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf, Germany. 2016 Critical Aesthetics: The First 10 Years, Room Gallery, Irvine, USA. Libidinal Economies, mumok, Vienna, Austria. The Pleasure Principle, FARAGO, Los Angeles, USA. What People do for Money: Some Joint Ventures, Manifesta 11, Zurich, Switzerland. Cut with the Kitchen Knife through the Raw Future of 100 Years Before, Cluj-Napoca, Rumania. The Natural Order of Things, Jumex Museum, Mexico City, Mexico. The Fraud Complex, West Space, Melbourne, Australia. 128 2015 Safe, Home, Manchester, UK. Permanent Collection Galleries, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia. Corpocracy, The Station Museum of Contemporary Art, Houston, USA. Rompiendo las reglas: juego y desafío ético para el cambio social. Manuel Felguérez Gallery CENART, Mexico City, México. Strange Currencies: Art & Action in Mexico City 1990-2000, The Galleries at Moore, Philadelphia, USA. Opening Exhibition, Parque Galería, Mexico City, Mexico. Playback, OCAT, Shanghai, China. Transmission, recreation and repetition, Palais des Beaux Art, Paris,France. A Journal of the Plague Year, The Lab, San Francisco, USA. 2014 Testigo del siglo, Museo de Arte de Zapopan, Guadalajara, Mexico. Does Humor Belong in Art?, ACC Gallery, Weimar, Germany. Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, Korea. Standard of Living, Gallery 400, University of Illinois, Chicago, USA. In motion: Borders and Migrations, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Salt Lake City, USA. Does Humor Belong in Art?, HALLE 14 – Center for Contemporary Art, Liepzig, Germany. Permission To BE Global, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA. La historia la escriben los vencedores, OTR, Madrid, Spain. 2013 Permission To BE Global, Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO) Art Space, Miami, USA. Home Away, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, USA. Mexico Inside Out, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, USA. SUR Biennial, Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, USA. California-Pacific Triennial, Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, USA. Memorias de la Obsolescencia, Wifredo Lam Contemporary Art Museum, Old Habana, Cuba. Laughter, Apexart, New York, USA. 2012 Synthetic Ritual, Prichard Art Gallery, Moscow, USA. Lo Carnavalesco, Mycellum Ingenium, Mexico City, Mexico. 2011 Cuenca Biennial, Quito, Ecuador. Incongruous, Musèe Cantonal des Beux-Arts, Lausanne, Switzerland. SF>DF>TJ>GOT, Galleri Rotor, Valand School of Fine Arts, Gothenburg, Sweden. Agiteded Histories, SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe, USA. Synthetic Rituals, Pitzer Art Gallery, Claremont, USA. Proyecto Juárez, Matadero, Madrid, Spain. Antes de la resaca..., MUAC, Mexico City, Mexico. The Workers, MASS MoCA, Massachussets, USA. Commercial Break, Parallel activity to the Venice Biennial, Venice, Italy. 2010 En cada instante, ruptura, Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros, Mexico City, Mexico. Proyecto Juárez, Carrillo Gil Museum, Mexico City, Mexico. Crossing, Paco de las Artes, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Arsenal, Baró Galería , Sao Paulo, Brazil. La Frontera: the cultural impact of Mexican migration, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, USA The Mole’s Horizon, Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels, Belgium. I don’t know whether to laught or cry, London Museum, Ontario, Canada. Noise – Sfeir, Semler Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon. 2009 The Rustle of the lenguage, Kaufmann Repetto, Milan, Italy. The Moving Image part two: from scan to screen, pixel to projection II, Orange County Museum, Orange County,USA. Manimal, National Center for Contemporary Art in association with the International University of Moscow, Moscow, Russia. O riso e a melancolia, Galeria Iberê Camargo, Porto Alegre, Brazil. Tragicomedia, Cajasol y Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Sevilla, Spain. Yoshua Okon + Barry Johnston, N.T.B.R., Los Angeles, USA. 2008 Amateurs, CCA Wattis, San Francisco, USA. White Russians, HDTS, California Biennial, High Desert, USA. Escultura Social, Museo Alameda, San Antonio, USA. Laughing in a Foreign Language, Hayward Gallery, London, England. Laugh Track, YUM21C, Brussels Biennial Off program, Brussels, Belgium. Electioneering, Fort Worth Contemporary Arts, Texas, USA. The Station, Miami Beach, Miami, USA. 2007 Luz y Fuerza del Centro, Charro Negro, Guadalajara, Mexico. Mercosur Biennial, Porto Alegre, Brazil. Eventos Sociales, GAM, Mexico City, Mexico. Escultura Social, MCA, Chicago, USA. Era de la Discrepancia. Arte y Cultura Visual en México 1968-1997, MUCA, Mexico City, Mexico, Fine Arts Museum, Houston, USA, Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada, Malba, Buenos Aires, Argentina. The Believers, Mass Moca, North Adams, USA. Black Sphinx, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA. 2006 Coyotería, Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, Germany. Diálogos Fronterizos, Palacio de Congresos, Madrid, Spain. Don’t Missbehave, SCAPE- Biennial of Art in Public Space, Christchurch, New Zealand. Neo Con, Apex Art, New York, USA and Brittish Academy, Rome, Italy. Ruby Satellite, Hyde Park Center, Chicago and California Museum of Photography, Riverside, USA. Los Angeles/Mexico: Complexities & Heterogeneity, Jumex Collection, Mexico City, Mexico. Blessed Are The Merciful, Feigen Contemporary, New York, USA. Próximamente..., Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City, Mexico. 2005 The Jewish Identity Project, The Jewish Museum, New York, USA. Day Labor, PS1 MOMA, New York, USA. Pantagruel Syndrome, Torino Triennale, Castello di Rivoli, Torino, Italy. America Tropical, Centre Culturel du Mexique, Paris, France. 129 Surveying the Border, Getty Center, Los Angeles, USA. Oracle of Truth, Aeroplastics, Brussels, Belgium. SCAR, Parkeergarage De Appelaar, Haarlem, Holland. Boosts in the Shell (The Pursued), DeBond, Bruge, Belgium. Monuments for the USA, CCA Wattis, San Francisco, USA. Human Nature, Pump House Gallery, London, England. Register the Distance, Borusan Gallery, Istambul, Turkey. 2004 Adaptive Behaviour, New Museum, New York, USA. Fishing in International Waters, Blanton Museum, Austin, USA. Don’t Call It Performance, Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain and Museo del Barrio, New York, USA. 2003 Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey. First ICP International Triennial of Contemporary Photography, International Center of Photography, New York, USA. Terror Chic, Spruth/Magers Gallery, Munich, Germany. This Is Not a Movie, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA. The Virgin Show, The Wrong Gallery, New York, USA. Female Turbulence, Aeroplastics, Brussels, Belgium. 2002 Big Sur, The Project, Los Angeles, USA. Mexico City: an Exhibition about the Exchange Rates of Bodies and Values, PS1 MoMA, Long Island, USA and Kunstwerke, Berlin, Germany. 8 x 2, Minnesota Center for Photography, Minneapolis, USA. Use your illusion, Vedanta Gallery, Chicago, USA. California Biennial, Orange County Museum of Art, Irvine, USA. Pictures of You, Americas Society, New York, USA. ALIBIS, Centre Culturel du Mexique, Paris, France and Witte de Witt, Rotterdam, Holland. 2001 Pay attenti[on] Please, Museo d’Arte Provincia di Nuoro, Italy. ZONING, The Project, New York, USA. Políticas de la Diferencia, Arte Iberoamericano fin de Siglo, Generalitat Valenciana, Spain, Pinacoteca del Estado, Río de Janeiro, Brazil, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Museo Sofía Iber, Caracas, Venezuela. 130 Sala de Recuperación, Museo Carrillo Gil, Mexico City, Mexico. City of Fictions, Mercer Union, Toronto, Canada. BURIED MIRRORS, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, USA. 2000 ACTION VIDEOS, Artists Space, New York, USA. c/o la ciudad, SAW Gallery, Ottawa, and Blackwood Gallery, Toronto, Canada. EXTRAMUROS, La Habana, Cuba. 1999 Sous la grisaille de Mexico, Passage de Retz, Paris, France and Capella de l’antic Hospital de la Santa creu, Barcelona, Spain. Paradas Continuas, Museo Carrillo Gil, Mexico City, Mexico. 1998 MEXELENTE, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, USA. OKON CALDERON OCAMPO, Galerie Philomene Magers, Colone, Germany. Vidéos d’art du Mexique et des Etats-Unis, Musée d’art Contemporain de Lyon, Lyon, France. 1997 CAMBIO, 526W 26th Street, NewYork, USA. SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS Tate Modern, London, England. Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA. Colección Jumex, Mexico City, Mexico. LACMA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, USA. Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco, USA. & Paris, France. Blanton Museum Collection, Austin, USA. Collection Pierre Huber, Geneva, Switzerland. Colección Fundación ARCO, Madrid, Spain. CIFO, Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami, USA. Fondazione Morra Greco, Naples, Italy. Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, USA. MALI, Museo de Arte de Lima, Lima, Peru. MUAC, Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City, Mexico. Museo Amparo, Puebla, Mexico. Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, USA. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia. AWARDS/GRANTS US/Mexico Fund for Culture, Rockefeller Foundation, CONACULTA and Bancomer Foundation. Young Creators, National Fund for Culture, Mexico, 1998. Fulbright, 2000 - 2002. National System of Art Creators, National Fund for Culture, Mexico, 2010 -2013. Art Matters, 2011. PROFESSIONAL SERVICE Advisor in New Genres, National Found for Culture, Mexico. Artist Council Member, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA. Advisory Committee Member, CIFO (Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation), Miami, USA. Founder and Artist Council Member, SOMA, Mexico City. Board Member, Art Matters, New York, USA. SELECTED ARTIST TALKS 2016 Yoshua Okón in conversation with Renaud Proch y Paul Pfeiffer, ICI, New York, USA. Yoshua Okón: Artpace, San Antonio, TX, USA. Yoshua Okón: 2o Festival de Arte Contemporáno, Acapulco, Mexico. Yoshua Okón: Jumex Museum, Mexico City, Mexico. Yoshua Okón: University of Utah, Department of Art & Art History, Salt Lake City, USA. 2013 Yoshua Okón: Hunter College, New York, USA. Yoshua Okón: Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, USA. Yoshua Okón: Falk Visiting Artist, Weatherspoon Art Museum. Greensboro, USA. Yoshua Okón: Cornerhouse, Manchester, England. 2011 Yoshua Okón, Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, USA. Encounter with Yoshua Okón, Tu Rito, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Visual Process, Laboratorio de Arte Alameda, Mexico City, Mexico. 2010 The School of The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago USA. Northwestern University, Art Department. Chicago, USA. MIS, Museu da Imagem e do Som, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Instituto Cervantes, Sao Paulo, Brazil. CIA, Centro de Investigaciones Artísticas, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA. Foro ENTRE, Oaxaca, Mexico. 2015 Yoshua Okón: Goldman-Schwartz Art Studios, Universidad Brandeis, Massachusetts, USA. Yoshua Okón: Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, USA. Yoshua Okón: CalArts, Los Angeles, USA. Yoshua Okón; El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, USA. 2014 El proceso creativo, ASVOFF A Shaded View On Fashion Film, Museo Franz Mayer, Mexico City, Mexico. Skowhegan, Resident Faculty and Artist Talk, Madison, USA. Department of Art and History, Standford University, USA. SOMA, Mexico City, Mexico. 131