Survey of Cuban Art Opens at El Espacio 23 in Miami – ARTnews.com

“You Know Who We Are,” at El Espacio 23 in Miami, is a survey of art from Cuba and its diaspora that, despite its title, proves that there are legions left to learn about the subject. The co-curators, Anelys Alvarez and Patricia Hanna, chose a thematic, rather than historical, approach, presenting the canon as a collective drama that spans several generations and thousands of miles.

All of the 100 or so artworks in the gallery, from sculptures to installations to paintings and everything in between, were acquired post-2017 by Miami’s number one collector, Jorge M. Perez, who appears regularly on ARTnews List of top 200 collectors. Presentation has no discernible hierarchy; Wifredo Lam, a pioneer of Cuban modernism, hangs beside artists recently rescued from obscurity.

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“The fragmented history of Cuban art has exposed political readings, of internal and external division – the island and its diaspora,” a text accompanies the exhibition notes. “It was marked by the willful omission, the erasure of talented artists who were plucked from the nation’s cultural continuity by their forced or voluntary exile, and by generations of Cubans not born on the island.”

Collective artists revisit enduring issues – those of gender, human rights and race – while also campaigning for freedom of expression. Many of the artists featured in the show were directly involved in the 2021 anti-government protests across the island over food shortages and a deteriorating standard of living exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. In response, the Cuban government has cracked down on communications and authorities have arrested or disappeared dozens of artists and activists since the protests began. Artists active in the show include Tania Bruguera, who was arrested during the protests but later released, and Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara, whose five-year prison sentence drew international condemnation.

Alvarez and Hanna, who run Perez’s personal collection, began organizing the exhibition before the protests erupted, and subsequently became involved in efforts to rescue dissident artists at risk by collaborating with the nonprofit Artists at Risk. ARTnews Talk to them via Zoom to learn more about the process of bringing You Know Who We Are to the museum. Below is an abbreviated version of the conversation.

ARTnews: What is the planning schedule “You know who we are”?

Patricia Hanna: In 2016 we donated nearly 200 artworks to the Perez Museum of Art, so we started the collection from scratch again. Because of who we are, we wanted an ongoing investigation of Cuban and Cuban diaspora art, and so our focus was always before the events of 2021. Given the situation and where the world was, politically and environmentally, we decided it was an important part of the collection. Let’s get this really clear – let’s make it part of the conversation.

Where do you begin to organize a show covering such a vast history?

Hanna: Cuba is very special because there is a huge diaspora. There are Cuban artists everywhere, and while everyone’s history is different, everyone’s collective experience is more or less the same. We took 500 works and whittled them down to about 100, to make sure they had clear individual voices and practices. We are creating conversations between these works, between artists who may have never met. Some left the island and never returned, others studied abroad and returned. Some were born there and never went anywhere else. It made sense to divide these conversations into distinct thematic groups.

Anneliese Alvarez: When the protests happened in 2021, we were helping artists get off the island with artists at risk, and that became part of the conversation. So, it became a show at the right time. We’re showing what’s at stake for these artists and activists.

What was the process like working with artists at risk?

Hanna: Because of our work with the group, we have always been involved in the Cuban art scene
—We are friendly with the artists, curators, and professors there. At the height of the action, we get a call from Maria Magdalena [Campos Pons, a Cuban artist], and put us in touch with Tania Bruguera and Coco Fusco, who introduced us as an organization that could activate support from this side, through our residency program in Miami. We wrote letters and petitions. We had to go through the proper channels to grant artists residencies in the US, and through these conversations we heard first-hand what was happening on the ground. It was a really great experience for us to realize that our support makes a difference.

AlvarezWe have three apartments on the other side of the program which creates an opportunity to host the artists and allow them to continue their practice. Their presence here has become a very important part of our organization.

How is all this reflected in the show?

Hanna: An entire section of the exhibition deals with human rights. This section is preceded by an artist’s rights statement published on Bruguera. The first piece that welcomes everyone is a giant vinyl wallpaper called “estados,” or “state,” which are screenshots of Facebook statuses from that time. Some are expressions of support, others are sad, and still others are pleading for help or providing real-time descriptions of people who are isolated not only because of censorship in Cuba, but because it is an island. For these artists, curators, and political prisoners, this basic freedom of knowing they have a voice is crucial to us. For Otero Alcántara, this may be his first show in a museum outside of Cuba.

Alvarez: It was important for us to put these artists who could not leave the island into conversation with Cubans from different backgrounds. It’s beautiful how they may have different experiences but can relate to a collective memory.

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