The Spaces Between / Contemporary Art from Havana

Press release -

The Spaces Between / Contemporary Art from Havana

How is life in Cuba today, beyond the headlines of the last few months about the thaw in international relations and political promises about lifting the trade embargo? Can art reflect a society? On Sunday, 22 February, Bildmuseet (museum for contemporary art and visual culture) in Sweden will open an exhibition of contemporary art from Havana.

The Spaces Between addresses the social and economic reality that has taken shape in Cuba in recent years. The exhibition presents fourteen artists living in the dynamic and complex capital, Havana. Their work highlights the people, the city and the social and political conditions of life there.

Juan Carlos Alom, Javier Castro, Sandra Ceballos Obaya, Celia - Yunior, Ricardo G. Elias, Luis Gárciga Romay, Luis Gómez Armenteros, Jesús Hdez-Guero, Ernesto Leal, Glenda León, Eduardo Ponjuán Gonzalez, Grethell Rasúa, Lázaro Saavedra González and Jorge Wellesley.

The artists participating in the exhibition represent different generations. Some of them are internationally established, while others are relatively unknown outside of Cuba. Their works reveal a legacy while also demonstrating the liberation from an older, more craft-oriented practice. The exhibition features nearly sixty works, including drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, installation and video.

The title, The Spaces Between refers to the gap between the artwork and its reception, between language and truth, and between the actual past and an imagined future. The exhibition presents the opportunity to take part in everyday life, in challenges and issues of concern in a country that has long been closed and isolated from the rest of the world. Through social and collective projects or in the privacy of their own studios, the artists explore different ways of relating to and articulating their situation in Havana.

In 2013, Bildmuseet presented a solo exhibition of the works of Cuban artist, Reynier Leyva Novo, who in his work dramatizes versions of Cuban history. The Spaces Between can be seen as a sequel. The exhibition was produced by Bildmuseet and the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery of Vancouver, Canada. It is curated by Cuban artist and critic, Antonio Eligio (Tonel), and Associate Director/Curator of the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Keith Wallace.

The Spaces Between opens on Sunday, 22 February at 14:00 and closes on 31 May. Welcome to the preview on Thursday, 19 February at 10:00 am. Antonio Eligio (Tonel) will be present.

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue (Black Dog Publishing) with texts by Keith Wallace, Antonio Eligio (Tonel) and Cecilia Andersson, curator at Bildmuseet.

Image above: Luis Gárciga Romay and Miguel Moya, Aiki (video stills), 2005
Courtesy of the artist

Links to press photos are available at:
www.bildmuseet.umu.se/en/press/press-room

For further information, please contact
Cecilia Andersson, museum curator Bildmuseet
cecilia.andersson@bildmuseet.umu.se, 090-786 66 84

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Bildmuseet exhibits contemporary international art, photography, architecture and design, along with art historic retrospectives. Existential, political and philosophical issues are key to the programme. The exhibitions are complemented by guided tours, lectures, seminars, films and performances. Workshops and educational activities inspire creativity. Bildmuseet was 2014 one of the top candidates for the Council of Europe Museum Prize as well as for the Swedish award Museum of the Year, and received a Special Commendation from the European Museum of the Year Jury.

Bildmuseet is a part of Umeå University, one of Sweden's largest institutions of higher learning with over 32,000 students and 4,200 employees. Since 2012 Bildmuseet has been housed at Umeå Arts Campus by the shores of the Ume River, right next to Umeå Academy of Fine Arts, Umeå Institute of Design and Umeå School of Architecture. The new museum building, designed by Henning Larsen Architects in collaboration with White, has been named one of the world's most beautiful university museums.

Contacts

Helena Vejbrink

Helena Vejbrink

Communication officer Bildmuseet +46 90 786 9073

Umeå University

Umeå University is one of Sweden's largest universities with over 37,000 students and 4,300 employees. The university is home to a wide range of education programmes and world-class research in a number of fields. Umeå University was also where the gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 was discovered – a revolution in gene-technology that was awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Founded in 1965, Umeå University is characterised by tradition and stability as well as innovation and change. Education and research on a high international level contributes to new knowledge of global importance, inspired, among other things, by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The university houses creative and innovative people that take on societal challenges. Through long-term collaboration with organisations, trade and industry, and other universities, Umeå University continues to develop northern Sweden as a knowledge region.

The international atmosphere at the university and its unified campus encourages academic meetings, an exchange of ideas and interdisciplinary co-operation. The cohesive environment enables a strong sense of community and a dynamic and open culture in which students and staff rejoice in the success of others.

Campus Umeå and Umeå Arts Campus are only a stone's throw away from Umeå town centre and are situated next to one of Sweden's largest and most well-renowned university hospitals. The university also has campuses in the neighbouring towns Skellefteå and Örnsköldsvik.

At Umeå University, you will also find the highly-ranked Umeå Institute of Design, the environmentally certified Umeå School of Business, Economics and Statistics and the only architectural school with an artistic orientation – Umeå School of Architecture. The university also hosts a contemporary art museum Bildmuseet and Umeå's science centre – Curiosum. Umeå University is one of Sweden's five national sports universities and hosts an internationally recognised Arctic Research Centre.

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