CUBANEO
PRESS RELEASE
NORTHAMPTON, MASSACHUSETTS — Mark Guglielmo's Cubaneo, an intimate homage to the people of Cuba, features 18 large-scale photo-collage portraits, interviews, and field recordings celebrating the lives of everyday Cubans. Since its 2017 debut, the exhibition has traveled to five museums and galleries across the United States, becoming A.P.E. Gallery's most attended show in its 45-year history with over 3,500 visitors in 26 days.
To create this project, Guglielmo visited Santiago de Cuba, Baracoa, Havana, Viñales, Cienfuegos, and Trinidad de Cuba on three successive trips to the island between 2015 and 2017. While there, he photographed and interviewed local Cubans he met on his journey. Each collage measures 5 to 12 feet wide and was handmade by taping together hundreds, sometimes thousands, of individual 4x6-inch photographs. Neither a computer nor Photoshop was used. Culled from dozens of audio interviews the artist conducted in Spanish, the exhibition features diverse Cuban voices and perspectives.
In June 2017, Cubaneo debuted at A.P.E. Gallery in Northampton, Massachusetts. Curated by Waleska Santiago-Centeño, the exhibition drew an unprecedented response from the community. It then traveled to Boston's Villa Victoria Center for the Arts (2017), curated by David Guerra; The Williston Northampton School, Easthampton, Massachusetts (2018); The Loveland Museum, Loveland, Colorado (2018); and von Auersberg Gallery, Deerfield Academy, Deerfield, Massachusetts (2019).
For his introductory panel, Cuban-born curator David Guerra wrote, "Guglielmo's images are a record of the ethnic and cultural heterogeneity that characterizes the Cuban people by going beyond what is commonly defined today as Cuban. 'Cubaneo' is the term used in Cuba to refer not to the Cuban identity but to the ways that identity is expressed. 'Cubaneo' then includes all the idiosyncrasies of Cubans including its reflection in Cubans' unique contemporary language. While access to what's Cuban may be achieved without even visiting the island, exposure to 'cubaneo' can only be achieved in Cuba, immersed and surrounded by Cubans. Only then can their behavior, including negative attitudes, their interactions and aspirations, their feelings and ways of being and living reveal itself. These collages capture the essence of 'cubaneo', leaving behind the foreign and naïve views often used by other photographers looking to depict this island and its people."
PRESS LINKS
https://artnewengland.com/blogs/mark-guglielmos-portrait-of-contemporary-cuba/
https://recorder.com/2017/06/07/artbeat-060817-10542661/
https://bigredandshiny.org/36696/cuban-complexity-mark-guglielmos-cubaneo/
https://thetakemagazine.com/mark-guglielmo-artist-2/
https://www.baystatebanner.com/2017/10/25/cubaneo/
https://www.wwlp.com/massappeal/cuba-in-transition-narrative-perspective-an-art-show/
https://valleyadvocate.com/2017/05/22/cuba-in-transition/