IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 3 ENGLISH | Page 44

In addition, artists such as Juan Carlos Alom, Manuel Arenas, Andrés Montalbán, Douglas Pérez,
Gertrudis Rivalta, Elio Rodríguez, Lázaro Saavedra, José Ángel Toirac and Alexis Esquivel
share a very important common trait; they don’t
work exclusively on these issues. They are an important part of their productions or a subject
deeper within the multiplicity of topics on which
they work. La coronación de Oshún [Oshun’s
Coronation], by José Ángel Roirac, may be the
only work in the exhibit that is visibly connected
to religious matters, but its intention alone clearly
reveals to deconstruct the violence in political actions that are hidden behind some “sacred” gestures, without going into too much description of
these traditions. This is why the exhibit did not
include notable artists whose work seems more
aimed in a different direction. The Queloides exhibit touches upon many, many issues: sexual stereotypes in Elio Rodríguez’s work; the role of
family in the shaping of racial identity in the
works of Carlos Alom, Gertrudis Rivalta and André Montalván; the body as a geographic space in
which racial conflicts occur in René Peña and
Montalván; racist ideas undone in the social psychology and popular humor of Douglas Pérez and
Lázaro Saavedra; the invisible and explicit forms
of segregation in the work of Manuel Arenas and
Alexis Esquivel. The exhibit did not have much
of an important impact on the tourist scene till a
year later, when the magazine Arte Cubano decided to publish part of the original presentation
Ni músicos, Ni deportistas. Yet, it did create a discreet echo in the press both inside and outside
Cuba. Each and every one of its adjectives read
more like a political game than any understanding
of art.
Conclusion
If Cuban society was complex during the 1990s,
this was also the most complicated decade for
eval Յѥ