Cuban Digital Art & Exhibitions: Hunger, Resistance, and Resilience

Similar to "non-state sponsored" artists listed within this guide, distinct from many nations in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the global north, art exhibitions in Cuba are regulated by the state. The state does not recognize private art exhibitions.  As such, the Cuban government formally distinguishes between licensed exhibitions and non-state artist exhibitions, which have to be hosted on servers outside of the island.  The exhibition "Arte en Resistencia" featuring the works of  "independent artists" showcases works not permitted to be shown/accessed electronically in Cuba.  

Independent artists within this exhibition are members of the artist collective the San Isidro Movement, who, since 2018, have produced works in defiance of Decree 349.  The artists within the movement and within this digital exhibition were actively producing works during the July 11, 20 2021, protests on the island.

The Human Rights Foundation’s Art in Protest program presents Arte en Resistencia, a virtual 3D gallery experience we are launching in tandem with the Oslo Freedom Forum. Held in partnership with Human Rights Foundation’s Art in Protest program, Arte en Resistencia reflects on the phenomenon of how art as a form of resistance has become a cultural practice in Cuba. Movimiento San Isidro (MSI) artists and protagonists of the Cuban artivism movement Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, Amaury Pacheco, Yasser Castellanos, Afrik3Reina, and Katherine Bisquet are featured in this unique virtual space.

For more information about these programs, please see the following sites:

https://artgalleries.tufts.edu/exhibitions/95-cuban-virtualities-new-media-art-from-the-island

Like Cuba: Emerging Virtual Narratives

• This series addresses digital culture and connectivity among the social and political contexts of contemporary Cuba. Participating artists employ a wide range of conceptual and formal strategies in order to speculate on the horizons of social media in a country that has historically had highly restricted access to open Internet. What does it mean to utilize social media in an artistic practice, in this time and place? When a social technology is so widespread and influential in so many other places across the world, but not yet a significant part of Cuban culture—how might artists anticipate and affect the eventual proliferation of social media across Cuba?

  The artists commissioned for this series are actively engaging contexts of virtual activity, using Instagram as a studio space or a tool for exhibition. Their work deals with digital culture and the possibilities it raises for connectivity with (or disconnection from) a non-indexed political and social reality: Cuba.

  Although statistics claim increases in connectivity, Cuba is still largely disconnected from virtual society at large. This is particularly evident when one looks at the customary use of Internet and social media by most Cuban citizens. Public Internet access points are highly monitored, and open access has historically been obtained through illicit channels. Some of this series’ commissions will explore these conditions of access, or position them as contextual backdrops.

  Despite these limitations, Cuban society and culture will be transformed by increased access to digital technologies, but the country’s historically fraught relationship with connective infrastructures leaves a lasting mark on the way artists approach new media and digital sociality. The artists commissioned for this series explore the collective hopes, desires, and anxieties that attend issues of political flux and connectivity in Cuba, while stressing the chances and challenges that accompany expanding access to Internet and social media.

Like Cuba: Emerging Virtual Narratives Alexandre Arrechea. The Series "Háblame"

Alexandre Arrechea, previously a member of the renowned artist collective Los Carpinteros, created a series of works titled “Háblame,” calling into question the mediated nature of communication in social media and daily life. By positioning the viewer opposite both an orifice of speech and a device through which dialogue occurs, but is fundamentally restricted, Arrechea identifies the site of social media as one of flawed potentiality.  The work recalls both religious sites of confession and security architecture—the pattern of perforated holes allows sound to pass through, but the panel constitutes a formidable barrier. Arrechea positions his subjects close-up.  Images are sourced from books, the Internet, and the artist’s archive.

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• Early Career of Mauricio Abad: Like Cuba: Emerging Virtual Narratives Mauricio Abad 

   

  Mauricio Abad, born in Havana, is known for his work in video art, music videos, and audiovisual design.
  
  Mauricio Abad’s project for BOFFO ♥ Digital Commissions takes inspiration from this momentous and imminent event, which many Cubans look toward with varying degrees of hope, anxiety, and curious speculation. In order to survey these political feelings, Abad turned to a specific group that has forged a defiantly resistant stance toward the nation’s technological isolation: the Street Network for Entertainment and Technology. SNET is an underground community of video gamers, developed and maintained through illicit Wi-Fi networks. Abad asked members of this community: “If you were president, what would you do first?” He composed the answers into meme form, overlaying the responses on humorous and illustrative images. The meme form also suggests that individual responses are part of a collective political desire. By presenting his project on Instagram, Abad is able to connect a specific sector of technologically savvy and motivated young Cubans with a global social media community. Yet his work maintains a decidedly human scale; as the project centers on a simple and direct question to individuals, Abad reveals the personal sides of a complex political and cultural shift that is being discussed across the world.