El arte no es democracia
Group exhibition at Estudio Nave Oporto, Madrid
Curated by Cristina Vives
EI arte no es democracia (Art is not democracy) is a selective and dialoguing exhibition that reveals connections between 18 artists from two art studios in Havana and Madrid who share themes, methodologies, re-flections, and experiences.
Nave Oporto (Carabanchel, Madrid, 2013) and Estudio Figueroa-Vives (Vedado, Havana, 1996) exist as pioneer art spaces of long trajectory in their respective contexts, conceived as a need of their Founders to find shelter for artistic debate, solidarity, and creative coexistence. They are spaces of promotion and territories of freedom. Both studios nourish from artists who enter and exit along the years because of their affinity, specific projects, and collaborations. This dynamic defines them as laboratories of ideas in constant evolution, and the quality of its members turns them into spaces of obliged consultation to map the contemporary art of their respective countries.
The exhibition proposes eight thematic sections that show some of the topics in research by the artists; history, memory and its reconstruction, paradigms and anti-heroes, the social landscape, the habitat (legacies and urgencies), the artistic craft and the material nature (roles and meanings). Each section combines works and authors as a great environment.
The exhibition declares that art is not democracy; but intelligence, diversity, excellence, and freedom contribute to it.