Raíces en tránsito: 30 artistas de la diáspora cubana | An ARC Exhibition 

Organized by: ARC – Artists at Risk Connection
In collaboration with: Galería Nueva Carabanchel
Media Partner: Diario de Cuba

Raíces en tránsito: 30 artistas de la diáspora cubana brings together the thirty artists who have participated in ARC – Artists at Risk Connection’s Cuban Migrant Artists Resilience Fellowship during its first three years, presenting a collective portrait of artistic practice shaped by exile, resilience, and creative freedom.

On view at Galería Nueva Carabanchel in Madrid from 10-26 September, the exhibition examines how Cuban artists living across the diaspora respond to displacement, political censorship, and restrictions on artistic freedom through works that transform lived experience into artistic creation, collective memory, and new forms of community.

Featuring visual art, film, literature, music, installation, socially engaged practices, and digital media, the exhibition explores themes of migration, identity, justice, memory, and cultural continuity. Presented at a time when independent Cuban artists continue to face censorship, harassment, imprisonment, and forced exile for exercising their right to freedom of expression, Raíces en tránsito affirms the essential role of artistic freedom in preserving cultural memory, fostering dialogue, and sustaining creative expression across borders.

Throughout the exhibition, visitors are invited to engage more deeply with these themes through a series of public programs—including artist talks, performances, guided tours, film screenings, and conversations with artists, curators, and human rights advocates—that explore the intersections of artistic freedom, migration, memory, and civic participation.

Meet the Artists

Featuring artworks by thirty Cuban artists living in exile across Europe, Latin America, and North America, the exhibition brings together a range of disciplines and backgrounds to convey diverse perspectives on the experience of diaspora.

Conceived as a “field of relations,” this exhibition moves beyond a single narrative of exile to focus on proximity. As both artist and curator navigating the diaspora, my interest lies in the conversations that emerge when distinct trajectories are held in relation without being resolved into synthesis. 

The works presented do not simply illustrate displacement; they inhabit it through negotiations between form, process, community, and time. They operate as propositions of resilience—not as mere endurance—where censorship, migration, and reconfiguration are not separate categories, but overlapping conditions of practice. In the face of uncertainty, these works show what art can sustain, transform, and carry forward.

About the Cuban Migrant Artists Resilience Fellowship

The Cuban Migrant Artists Resilience Fellowship is an initiative of ARC – Artists at Risk Connection that supports Cuban artists living in exile whose creative practices have been affected by restrictions on artistic freedom. Through resilience grants, mentorship, professional development, international networks, and exhibition opportunities, the fellowship empowers artists to continue their work, adapt to new cultural environments, and build sustainable creative careers beyond Cuba. Raíces en tránsito: 30 artistas de la diáspora cubana marks the first time all thirty fellows from the program’s first three years have come together in a single exhibition.

Outreach Partners

ARC gratefully acknowledges the following organizations for helping amplify Raíces en tránsito: 30 artistas de la diáspora cubana and the voices of Cuban artists in exile through their networks and communities.