The Cuba Project

Making of the Collaboration Painting

Carol — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:04:21 +0000

At Joel Jover’s studio in San Juan de Dios square in Camaguey, the three artists featured in the Los Artistas Magos exhibition work on a collaborative painting together. The painting was also titled Los Artistas Magos .
It is begun by Osmany Soler, then Joel Jover takes his place, followed by James K-M.

Joel Jover continues his part of the collaborative painting.

Osmany adds a little more before the painting is removed and rolled up to be transferred to James K-M’s workspace.

James K-M creates his portion of the painting outside on the roof deck, in the morning heat of morning. Osmany adds finishing strokes to his part back at Jover’s studio.

Press for Los Artistas Magos, Artist Magicians

Carol — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 20:28:07 +0000

The exhibition closes this week, and here are a few links to recent articles, as well as former mentions below.

A quick search last week found these links for the exhibition and opening.

Much interest was seen in the presence of Panchito, who was invited to open the exhibition as an honoured guest.

A few of these are duplications either related to the press release from the gallery or picked up from the official news source.

Inaugurarán en Camagüey proyecto Los artistas magos

Carol — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 20:23:08 +0000

From Principe, Portale de la Cultura for Camagüey

Inaugurarán en Camagüey proyecto Los artistas magos

09-12-2009

Camagüey- El proyecto “Los artistas magos”, con obras de los creadores lugareños Joel Jover y Osmany Soler, y el canadiense James K. M., quedará inaugurado el 18 de diciembre, a las nueve de la noche, en el Centro Provincial de Artes Plásticas de Camagüey.

La muestra cuenta con una serie de 34 piezas bidimensionales. Pável Alejandro Barrios Sosa, curador de la exposición, pretende mostrar la forma en que estos artistas, tal vez de manera instintiva o subconsciente, han revisitado las dos tesis primigenias del arte.

Un conjunto de símbolos y signos confluyen en “Los artistas magos”, como una suerte de traducción, desde sus estéticas personales, de la persistencia o connotaciones que los orígenes del arte adquieren aún hoy en la contemporaneidad.

La exposición presentará un performance, a manera de apertura, en el cual el líder espiritual de los descendientes de indígenas cubanos, realizará una de las ceremonias del tabaco, practicada por nuestros ancestros, en este caso, para bendecir la muestra y a todos los presentes.

Enviado por Centro Provincial de las Artes Plásticas Camagüey
Con la colaboración de María de los Ángeles Díaz, Comunicadora, Dir. Prov. de Cultura.

Los Artistas Magos Opening Photos

Carol — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 20:00:54 +0000

CUBA-INAUGURAN EN CAMAGUEY EXPOSICION COLECTIVA “LOS ARTISTAS MAGOS”
Click on the image to view Official Photos taken at the opening of the exhibition Los Artistas Magos, or link below.

http://fotos.ain.cu/main.php?g2_itemId=149798

Camagüey and Canada in visual arts exhibition

Carol — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 19:37:31 +0000

Characteristic elements of primitive art are present in the exhibition that took place in that city, with pieces from Joel Jover and Osmany Soler, both from Camaguey province, and the Canadian James K-M.
The exhibition was opened in the gallery of República Street, with creations whose contents express naturalistic pictography and abstract ideography.

According to the organizing commission, it included the presence of the authors of the pieces and among other guests; there was Francisco (Panchito) Ramírez, considered to be the “cacique” (chief) of Caridad de los Indios, a community from Guantanamo where descendants from aboriginal people still exist.

The region of Camaguey has one of the main pictography regions in the country, the northern Sierra de Cubitas, which covers about 60 kilometres long and the greatest mountain range in the province with the greatest plains.

The Pichardo, María Teresa, los Generales and las Mercedes caves are among the ceremonial sites where the indo-Cuban communities, who lived in the savannas to the north of the mountains, left their drawings. This is according to some researched headed by Doctor Jorge Calvera.

References to the pictography from María Teresa are seen in the anti-slavery novel Sab, by the poet and writer from Camaguey Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda.

Source: ACN

Reception and Opening

Carol — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 17:26:04 +0000

Tobacco Ceremony Opens Show

Carol — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 20:56:50 +0000

Panchito and his daughter Idalis open the exhibition with a prayer and tobacco ceremony.
Opening Invocation and Prayer

Tobacco Ceremony

Exhibition Opening Remarks

Carol — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 19:23:04 +0000

Video of the opening of the exhibition Los Artistas Magos. Over 300 people attended the event, which was documented by local and national news media.

Interview on TV

Carol — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 21:28:28 +0000

The whole family at our casa particulare gathered around the tv set to see this clip on television, outlining the upcoming exhibition Los Artistas Magos. James K-M was interviewed, then the curator, Pavel Alejandro Barrios Sosa and the historian from Baracoa, Alejandro Hartmann Matos talked about the exhibition and the opening which featured a ceremony by Panchito.

The Catalogue Essay

Carol — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 12:28:20 +0000

Pavel Alejandro Barrios Sosa, the curator of the exhibition, Los Artistas Magos, wrote an insightful essay in Spanish for the catalogue. However, the person he hired to translate the work returned something that didn’t look much like English. In fact, it closely resembled something that was put through a computer translator, and in many areas made no sense at all. I was so happy to work closely with Alejandro on the tight publication deadline, to produce the English version.

We went over the text word by word and sentence by sentence, seizing the meaning behind his words, and by relating to the English computer text I was able to put together a version that held the ideas he was expressing so fluently in Spanish. Because he is a poet, writer and profound thinker, the experience was deep and meaningful.

You can see the text online here, and its also available for download from James K-M’s site here.