¿soy Cuba?
a cura di Laura Salas Redondo
Alejandro Campins, Elizabet Cerviño, Luis López-Chávez, Leandro Feal, Carlos Garaicoa, Osvaldo González, Reynier Leyva Novo, Susana Pilar, Pascale Marthine Tayou, José Yaque
What does it mean to be Cuban today? Why formulate questions about identity around the construction of a country? How to transcend the simplified view of an Island with as many contradictions as the people who live there?
The exhibition ¿soy Cuba? seeks to focus attention on a specific historical moment—the present—and to illustrate the various possible responses of a new generation of artists. It encompasses a broad spectrum that, starting from the overarching theme of ‘identity,’ delves more intimately into various micro-stories which, as they wind through the interior of the Palazzina dei Bagni Misteriosi in Milan, lead to the deconstruction of the grand narrative of identity, thereby expanding its richness of meaning.
Born in 1981 in Manzanillo, Cuba. He currently lives and works in Havana. With a degree from the Higher
Institute of Art (ISA), Campins participated in many personal and group exhibitions both in Cuba and abroad.
His medium is mainly paint- ing, but photography and design are equally important ways through which
Campins develops his creativity.
Born in 1986 in Manzanillo, Cuba. She currently lives and works in Havana. She attended the Higher
Institute of Art (ISA) in Havana. In her work, poetry and performance are fundamental.
Born in 1988 in Manzanillo, Cuba, and currently lives and works in Havana. He studied at the Higher Institute
of Art (ISA) in Havana, Cuba and in the Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm. His work is a research on the
plastic form through different medias.
Born in 1986 in Havana, Cuba, where he lives and works. He studied at Cátedra Arte de Conducta, created
by Tania Bruguera, and has a degree from the Istituto Superiore de Arte (ISA). Photography is the means
through which Feal has chosen to express his art.
Born in 1967 in Havana, currently lives and works between Havana and Madrid. He studied thermodynamics
and later painting at the Instituto Superior de Arte, Havana (1989 - 1994), while developing a
multidisciplinary approach to address issues of culture and politics, particularly Cuban, through the study of
architecture, urbanism and history. Through a wide variety of materials and media, Garaicoa found ways to
criticise modernist Utopian architecture and the collapse of the 20th century ideologies.
Born in 1982 in Camagüey, Cuba, currently living and working in Havana. With a degree from the Higher
Institute of Art (ISA), he uses Scotch tape as the main material for his installations, but painting and drawing
are two forms art also used in his work.
Born in 1983, in Havana, Cuba, where he lives and works. He attended the Higher Institute of Art (ISA)
(studies not completed) and the Catedra de Arte de Conducta created by artist Tania Bruguera.
Born in 1984 in Havana, where she lives and works. She graduated from the Higher Institute of Art in
Havana (ISA) and did postgraduate studies at the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design (HfG) with DAAD
scholarship. Susana’s elaborately staged productions featuring herself as a corpse are part of a long
tradition of artists self-portraits.
Born in Nkongsamba, Cameroon in 1966, lives and works in Ghent, Belgium and in Yaoundé, Cameroon.
Already at the very outset of his career, Pascale Marthine Tayou added an “e” to his first and middle name to
give them a feminine ending, thus distancing himself ironically from the importance of artistic authorship and
male/female ascriptions. The objects, sculptures, installations, drawings and videos produced by Tayou have
a recurrent feature in common: they dwell upon an individual moving through the world and exploring the
issue of the global village.
Born in 1985 in Manzanillo, Cuba, currently living and working in Havana. He graduated from the Higher
Institute of Art in Havana (ISA) and has participated in numerous collective and individual exhibitions in Cuba
and abroad.