Finissage om 22:00 met Cubaanse rumproeverij In Cuba, waar nauwelijks toegang tot de archieven en een 'politics of memory' bestaat, vestigen kunstenaars de aandacht op wat geen stem of erkenning krijgt binnen het officiële discours. Teruggrijpend op (im)materiële objecten zoals artefacten, documenten, medailles, handleidingen, sigaren of liederen, vertellen zij al te menselijke verhalen over migratie, slavernij, de kindertijd en overleving. In deze verduisterde sala de estar (huiskamer) wordt de bezoeker uitgenodigd deze fragmenten te doorzoeken die Cubanen hebben 'opgeworpen tegen hun ondergang'. Gezamenlijk vormen zij de onmogelijke vraag: hoe kan iemand het moraal hoog houden wanneer dit zo verheven en onbereikbaar is als de sterren? In Cuba, where there is little to no access to archives, let alone a politics of memory, artists are taking up the important task of remembering what has been left unsaid and unreckoned by officialdom. Resorting to (im)material objects, like artefacts, documents, medals, manuals, cigars and songs – they expose human all too human stories on migration, slavery, childhood and survival. In this darkened sala de estar (living room) the visitor is invited to rummage through these fragments that many Cubans have ‘shored against their ruin’. Together they piece together the impossible question: how can one sustain morals and morale when these are as lofty and unreachable as the stars? With artists: Celia/Yunior (CU) and Ricardo Miguel Hernández, Adrian Melis (CU), Voebe de Gruyter (NL/BE), Yimit Ramírez (CU), Jeroen van Loon (CU), Moniek Driesse (NL) and David Ortiz Juan (ES). Celia González and Yunior Aguiar (1985, CU), graduated from High Institute of Art (ISA), Havana, Cuba in 2009 and have participated in in the Venice Biennale in 2015, Lyon Biennale 2015, New Talents Biennale in 2016 and Havana Biennale 2012 various exhibitions in Sweden, Milan and Havana, as well as participated in residencies in Morocco, Scotland, Austria, California and the UK. They have received the award from Farber Foundation to the best young artists of the year, 2015. The work that will be on show at this exhibition, Sala Discontinua, was made in collaboration with Ricardo Miguel Hernández (1984, CU), who graduated at Arte de Conducta and Higher Institute of Arts (ISA), Havana, Cuba. He had solo exhibitions and has participated in exhibitions in, amongst other, Havana, Rome, Milan, Cologne, Prague and Klangenfurt, Austria. He received the 2015 the Post-it3 Prize in Havana and a special mention in 2014 at the SetUp Art fair in Bologna, Italy. Moniek Driesse (1983, NL) is a design researcher living and working in Rotterdam and Mexico City. She graduated with honors from the Man & Communication department at the Design Academy Eindhoven and the Masters in Architecture at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. David Ortiz Juan (1983, ES) lives and works between València and Amsterdam. He graduated from ArtEZ School of the Arts (Arnhem) and received a MA degree at Sandberg Instituut (Amsterdam). Adrian Melis (1985, CU) studied at the Instituto de Arte (I.S.A.) in Cuba between 2005 and 2010 and at Tania Bruguera’s Graduato de la Catedra de Arte Conducta in 2009. He was resident ot the Rijksakademie from 2013 to 2015. SPECIAL SCREENING The Secret Export of Stories A video performance of Voebe de Gruyter Saturday 17th of December, at 16:15 and 19:00. Free entrance. In Cuba there are professionals in reading stories out aloud. Every year they are elected democratically by the cigar rollers. The chosen ones have the honorable task to read stories and newspapers to the labourers of the factory that elected them. Through the walls and the hands of the labourers their words are, as it were, wrapped into the cigars. In her poetic story, De Gruyter unravels this mystery. Exceptionally, cigars will be smoked in the salon as an inherent part of the work (cigars will be available). Please consider this. Voebe de Gruyter (1960, NL/BE) approaches the world and life as a series of processes that are continuously influencing each other. Objects that surround us are not mere autonomous things but are interconnected and have a much deeper effect on us than we might expect. Voebe de Gruyter lives and works in Brussels, studied at the Rietveld academy in Amsterdam and was resident at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, ISP in New York and Cite des Arts in Paris. This exhibition is part of Connecting Cuba
DUUR
720 minuten