Designing post-communism: Recent political imaginaries in Cuban contemporary art

The fall of the Berlin Wall marked by the end of real state socialism signaled a permanent concern in eastern visual and material culture. In this sense socialist aesthetics far from disappearing flooded new ways of reimagining and reconstructing the past under the sign of the so called post-communist condition. While archaic forms of the socialist image production emerged as ways of rethinking a past history, contemporary art began reexamining its artistic and linguistic legacies. The exhibition Designing Post-Communism: recent political imaginaries in Cuban contemporary art, tries to bear witness to this paradigmatic change in contemporary culture from the singular venue and experience of the Cuban Revolution. The exhibition features four important artists of the contemporary Cuban art scene Ezequiel Suarez, Filio Galvez, Hamlet Lavastida, and Rodolfo Peraza. These artists artistic productions try to come to terms with the socialist experience in an array of representational techniques. Whether exploring the moralizing experience of the new man through newmedia digital forms such as video games, capturing the ruins of hidden soviet inspired architecture in Havana, or appropriating the design and surfaces of visual propaganda during the first decade of Catroism of the 1960s; these artists appropriate the imaginaries of communism to understand the passing away of utopia as catastrophe. Curated by Gerardo Munoz, this show tries to articulate the relation between past communist imaginaries and its multiple reconstructions by contemporary artists through two main loci: design and political ideology. The catalogue of the exhibition will include texts by Gerardo Munoz, and Ivan de la Nuez. This exhibition will open July 6, 2012 at Collage Gallery 154 Almeria Avenue Coral Gables, FL 33134. For RSVP (305) 444-4848.

Designing post-communism: Recent political imaginaries in Cuban contemporary art

La cada del muro de Berln y el fin de los socialismos reales del siglo veinte dieron lugar a un marcado inters por la cultura visual del Este. La antigua cultura socialista de este modo, lejos de desaparecer ha reconstruido nuevas formas de reconstruir los imaginarios bajo el signo poscomunista. A pesar del derrumbe de las utopas modernas, el arte contemporneo en los ltimos aos ha insistido en reexaminar los legados artsticos, formales, y discursivos de la propaganda socialista. La exhibicin Designing Post-Communism: recent political imaginaries in Cuban contemporary art intenta pensar este cambio paradigmtico dentro de la cultura contempornea desde la experiencia singular de la Revolucin Cubana. Los cuatros artistas que figuran en la muestra Ezequiel Surez, Filio Glvez, Hamlet Lavastida, y Rodolfo Peraza experimentan con la historia y los imaginarios socialistas desde prcticas estticas dismiles. Obras que van de un videojuego que expone la moralidad pedaggica del hombre nuevo, fotografas sobre las ruinas soviticas ocultas de la Habana, emblemas y discursos reapropiados de la propaganda socialista de los sesenta, son algunos de los temas en los cuales estos artistas trabajan con las restos de la utopa. Curada por Gerardo Muoz, esta exhibicin busca articular la relacin los pasados imaginarios socialistas y sus respectivas reconstrucciones desde el arte contemporneo a travs del diseo y las ideologas polticas. El catlogo de la muestra incluye textos de Ivn de la Nuez y Gerardo Muoz. La exhibicin tendr su apertura el 6 de Julio en Collage Gallery 154 Almeria Avenue Coral Gables, FL 33134. Para reservar, favor contactar (305) 444-4848