Event
Cuban Migrant Artists Exhibition @ PEN 90th Congress
September 24 - 27 | Oxford
September 24 - 27
Leonardo Royal Hotel Oxford, Godstow Road,
Oxford, United Kingdom, OX2 8AL
This is a free exhibition.
As part of the 90th PEN International Congress, Artists at Risk Connection (ARC) and PEN International invite the international community to uplift and celebrate Cuban artistic voices in the diaspora through their exhibition “Constellations of Cuba: Resignifying the Past, Reimagining the Future.”
The exhibition will be on display from September 24 - 27, facilitating dialogue among congressgoers concerning the importance of artistic freedom, the burden of exile and immigration on one’s creative practice, and the unique challenges to free expression in the Cuban context.
The showing elevates artistic projects from the inaugural cohort of ARC and PEN International's Cuban Migrant Artists Resilience Fellowship. Now in its second cycle, the fellowship provides essential support to Cuban artists in the diaspora, empowering them to overcome challenges abroad and bring their creative visions to life.
Artist Biographies
Amaury Pacheco
Amaury Pacheco is an artist and activist for cultural and civil rights. His work includes poetry, sculpture, performance, audiovisual work, and independent cultural production. He develops and shares the “Poéticas Operativas,” a method of civic activation with poetic procedures. He founded and directed OmniZonafranca (1997-2017), a space of creation and resistance that organizes the festival Poesía Sin Fin. Founded and co-coordinated the San Isidro Movement, a civic activism platform against Decree 349 and other forms of censorship and repression in Cuba. He has been persecuted, arrested, and exiled to the United States. This book tells his story, motivations, challenges, and dreams. It's the testimony of a man who believes in the power of words and action to transform reality.
Ana Rosa Diaz Naranjo
Ana Rosa Diaz Naranjo is a poet, narrator, plastic artist, and actress. She has published the poetry books Pasos en el borde, (Editorial Sanlope, 2003), Profecías del Arquero, (Editorial Sanlope, 2008), Otra vez el cielo (editorial Negro sobre Blanco, Venezuela, 2013), Poemas Oral Traumáticos y Cósmicos en Profecias del arquero, (Frente de Afirmación Hispanista, A.C. México, 2018), Glosar el viento (Editorial Primigenios, Estados Unidos, 2022), El hueco, (Ilíada Ediciones, Alemania, 2019), Rani y la charca misteriosa (Editorial Primigenios, Estados Unidos, 2020), and Monte adentro (Élida Ediciones, Madrid, 2023).
She is a member of the International Puppetry Association and a delegate of the Spanish Chapter of The Cove Rincon (United States).
Carlos Quintela
Carlos Quintela is a Cuban filmmaker and artist. His debut film, "THE SWIMMING POOL," was screened in the Panorama del 63o section of the Berlin Film Festival and received more than 15 prizes in festivals. Martin Scorsese, as President of the Jury, awarded him the Jury Prize for Best First Film at the Marrakech International Film Festival in 2012. With his second feature, "The Project of the Century," he won numerous awards, including the Tiger HIVOS and the Lions Film Award at the IFF Rotterdam 2015. His third feature film, "THE WOLVES OF THE EAST" (2017), starring Tatsuya Fuji, was co-produced by Naomi Kawase. Quintela is a multifaceted filmmaker-artist who has developed as a screenwriter, script consultant for ScriptEast, editor, producer, and visual artist. He lives in Madrid and is part of the diaspora of Cuban artists settled in the Spanish capital.
Claudia Patricia Pérez
Claudia Patricia Pérez is a Cuban designer and artist based in Brazil. Her artistic practice is transdisciplinary: the work ranges from unorthodox incursions in the field of publications, production of protest posters, drawings to installations. Claudia Patricia is interested in speculative text and daring images, historic ways of intentional provocation, and their subversive symbolism. Her work seeks to question official and hegemonic narratives in moments of political and economic crisis. She is also the founder of the project Mujercitos Magazine.
cymoonv
cymoonv is a self-taught digital artist from Havana who explores new subjectivities around the topics of self-perception, queerness, and the performance of virtual identities through fluid representations of bodies set in worlds inspired by nature and posthumanism. Her work has been exhibited internationally, virtually and AFK, including Miami Art Week, Refraction Festival, MMMAD (Madrid’s Urban Digital Art Festival), IGNITE Broward Festival, EROTIKA Festival, The Wrong Biennale, and diverse web3 projects.
Daniel Sánchez Alfaro
Daniel Sánchez Alfaro is a visual artist interested in reflecting distinct social realities through his work. His artistic focus centers on comics and illustration, and he has had the privilege of participating in exhibitions related to freedom of expression with the Mesa de Diálogo de la Juventud Cubana, he was published in the Franco-Belga comic book “Krónikas,” and collaborated with the magazine “El Estornudo.” Through his work he has sought to capture the irreverent criticism towards dictatorships and contexts where freedom is being lacerated. Having grown up in a dictatorship and openly opposing the regime, Daniel's work has always been characterized by political undertones and the confrontation of established dogmas.
David D'Omni
David D'Omni is a musician and painter. His artistic formation took place in the city of Alamar as part of the Interdisciplinary project Omni-Zonafranca. His music is a step between the genres of art rock, new age, experimental music, or world music, with a strong influence of urban genres such as Hip Hop, Reggae, and electronic music. He has given lectures and concerts in several US Universities, such as: Miami Dade College, University of South Florida, University of Florida, Florida International University, Princeton, Harvard, Columbia, Yale, Trinity, Xavier, Tulane, and John Hopkins: also in several countries such as: Spain, Poland, Croatia, Lithuania, Germany, Czech Republic, Guadeloupe, Chile, Panama, Peru, Mexico, France, Switzerland, Costa Rica and Denmark has been part of several international festivals such as New Orleans Jazz & Heritage festival (New Orleans), Rotilla Festival (Cuba), Trinity hip hop festival (Hartford), Festival HIP HOP SESSIONS (Guadeloupe), Cannes Film Festival (France) and Roskilde Music Festival (Denmark). Besides his artistic work, he has produced several festivals, workshops, readings, and exhibitions for other independent artists in Cuba, promoting social change through art. He was selected as an official delegate representing Cuba's independent civil society at the 7th and 8th Summit of the Americas.
Nonardo Perea
Nonardo Perea moves through various artistic manifestations, including performance, literature, acting, photography, audiovisual, ceramics, drawing and installation. To the date, all their works have been done independently. All their work is seen from a personal and intimate vision, almost always defending the themes related to the human body and the problems facing the LGBTIQ+ collective. They belong to the San Isidro movement. In 2021, they concluded their first feature film: “Vulgarmente Clásica X” where they narrate their encounter with the Cuban State Security. They have made the self-fiction documentary "La otra vida" (2023) a piece that addresses the difficult relationship of a heterosexual man with a gay man. They are currently exiled in Spain.
Ruber Osoria
Ruber Osoria is a Cuban photographer who immigrated to Chile in 2018, with the dream of buying his first camera. In 2019, he founded along with other photographers AFOCONCE, an educational photography collective located in the city of Concepción, which seeks to disseminate and develop “photographic culture.” His work has been recognized in international photography festivals such as the Emerging Photography Festival - BFOTO (España), the Italian Street Photo Festival, and the international festival of Santa Marta, Colombia. This year, his series “Chile, el otro terremoto” was selected by WE:NOW International Festival for Young Artists Creators in Madrid. Besides this, he has undertaken personal and collective exhibition in countries such as Argentina, the United States, Colombia, Chile, and Cuba, and his work has been published in magazines and platforms such as Lf Magazine, L’Œil de la Photographie, Blind Magazine, and the Street Photography.
Solveig Font
Solveig Font Martinez is an independent curator and activist with an academic background in Sociocultural Studies. In 2014, she founded Avecez Art Space, an independent art space in her home. Until her exile in 2021, this place hosted more than 20 exhibitions, as well as workshops and conferences. She fought against the restrictive Decree No. 349 and is a member of the group 27N, which advocated for artistic freedom and human rights. She was arrested during the popular demonstration on July 11, 2021. Additionally, she is one of the founders of the Forma Foco collective and a curator at Resistart Gallery. Her upcoming exhibitions include "On the New: Viennese Scenes and Beyond", ALIBI, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Vienna, Belvedere21, and "How Long Have You Been Blind", at the ENTRE gallery, as part of Vienna Art Week 2023. Both exhibitions are curated by Forma Foco + ENTRE gallery.
Location
Published on September 18, 2024.