Opening: Saturday December 16th from 10 am
The period between the first Havana Biennial (1984) and the fifth Caribbean Biennial (2003) defines a time span that lends itself to analyze the production of meanings related to contemporary art, generated from the Caribbean and its diasporas within the complexities of the context itself. Such events establish a kind of chronological and cultural scenario that gives basis and meaning to the development of this production. At the same time, the artists, institutions, and players of the system have shaped this cultural space through their proposals, giving rise to the emergence of a rich and diverse cultural territory.
The exhibition focuses on the chronological range between 1984 and 2003 to showcase the artistic production of the Caribbean. Within this period, it is worth highlighting the different forms of expression used by the artists to respond to their contexts and give visibility to how they, the cultural institutions and the sporadic events that develop from the Caribbean take a stance on the need for unity, solidarity and cohesion proposed from a cultural standpoint. Rather than showing the extraordinary character of each of these cultural players, the exhibition seeks to focus on the idea of community and the commonality of circumstances. Although it does not present a homogeneous scenario, it does underscore similarities, places of convergence and spaces of connection in the realm of cultural production.
Hegemonic thinking tends to describe the Caribbean as a cultural space that cannot be defined on account of its diversity, or drawn together due to its disparity, and it is invariably referred to as a fragmented, unconnected, uprooted society or community. While the exhibition does not intend to (and cannot) rectify these historically imposed arguments that appeal to the fragmentation and centripetal structure of the Caribbean, it underscores, through works and other narratives, the possibility of a different interpretation that, without ignoring the permanent and latent crisis, suggests other approaches from the point of view of cultural production.
