Experience 31: Hope

Over the last five decades, Cuban artists have used video art to explore the sociological, anthropological, political, spiritual and cultural realities of the island and its purposeful isolation. The artists explore a country torn by forces such as love and hate, desire and neglect, isolation and receptiveness, as well as western and eastern ideologies. Hope will highlight how a country full of contradictions became one of the most interesting places for the creation of contemporary art, and new media art in particular, as these artists distinctively melded mainstream models of video art (notably including Hollywood films) with Latin American influences. With its performative and installation-driven approaches, Cuban video art also had a huge effect on the wider field of Latin American contemporary art. Hope will give an overview of the surprising reciprocal influence of European and U.S. art and Latin American video art, from pioneer works of the 1960s and new creative processes in the 1990s until the most recent developments.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.