An unprecedented museum exchange between the New York Bronx Museum and the National Museum of Fine Arts of Cuba (MNBA by its Spanish acronym) will take place on May 21 at the Chamber of Universal Art of this institution when it will be inaugurated the sample Ruido salvaje.
This selection, which includes hundreds of works of 54 American artists, will be part of the official program of the 12th Havana Biennial that between May 22 and June 22 will turn Havana into a giant gallery.
The participating artists mainly reside in the Bronx area, where there is an important settlement of African, Latin American and Asian descendents with a unique vision and artistic perspective, which opens a window for Cubans to a little-known area of American art.
This initiative become cultural collaboration is considered the largest collaboration between both countries in the past five decades. Three years took its projection and its core activities incluye to share valuable segments of the collections of both institutions, educational workshops for youth, joint curators of art exhibitions, a program of public lectures and the sponsorship for the creation of new works through in situ interventions of two young artists: Mary Mattingly and Humberto Diaz.
Mary is currently in Havana preparing her work, based on ecosystems, that will also be exhibited at the Havana Central Park, and will consist of a sort of large spheres which can be pushed and contain birds and fishes, among other things. Humberto will travel to New York next year and there he will create his works from his experiences at Bronx.
This exhibition was preceded by the sample Cuba libre, which was inaugurated a year ago in the New York facility. With a selection of works from the private collection of Shelley and Donald Rubin, the exhibition brought together contemporary Cuban artists whose creations have been controversial, transgressive and acclaimed by audiences because of their richness and diversity. This sample included, among others, Ricardo G. Elias and Jose Angel Toirac (with the series Peregrinaje). Installations and assemblies by Eduardo Ponjuán, Lithographs by Humberto Castro with representative pieces of Tonel, Adonis Flores, Tomás Esson, Carlos Garaicoa and Sandra Ramos. The curatorship had the criteria of the museum specialists and the staff of the Rubin collection.
In this Havana experience the curatorial team is made up by Corina Matamoros and Aylet Ojeda by Cuba and Holly Block and Sergio Bessa, CEO and director of curatorial and educational programs of the Bronx Museum for the American side.
The Bronx Museum of the Arts is one of the American museums that has been most interested in recent years in Latin American art because of its geographical location. It holds annually several exhibitions, concerts, talks and other events closely related to the art and culture of this region.
Next year the MNBA will display at the Bronx Museum a selection of a hundred pieces of its collection, of different styles, techniques, formats and generations of creators. It will be an unprecedented action for the American audience that will undoubtedly enjoy it because of the relevance of these works, significant exponents of Cuban art from different eras.
