Under the title ¨Brujas, pero también Brujos ¨ (Witches, but also Wizards), the space ¨Aglutinador¨ and the Maniac Art Museum exhibit by these days a sui generis sample that fuses art with religious rites and beliefs of various points of the planet.
On the occasion of its twentieth anniversary, this space for creation and exhibition, run by the artist Sandra Ceballos, brought together almost fifty people in this exhibition where spirits, amulets, Orishas, paranormal events and energy are the protagonists.
Artists, esotericists, astrologers, researchers, healers, ritualists, believers, practitioners, mystics, both Cuban and foreign, invoke magic, sensuality and spirituality through various techniques, styles, textures, genres and expressive possibilities both conventional and experimental.
The exhibition, which consists of 38 works, can be seen until the end of this month in Alfredo Ramos´ colonial mansion, at 106 of Linea Street, permanent headquarters of the Maniac Art Museum in Havana.
Sandra Ceballos told OnCuba that the exhibition does not attempt to show religious or folk art. The artistic intention is to dig into the enigmatic presence of “Eggun or dead as a matrix of all clandestine psychophysical phenomena, legitimate and fairly rate those smart energies, which do not presume of egocentric and are possibly more authentic and spontaneous than the material world.”
“Defending its spokesmen, historically discriminated and repressed by ‘ science’, and delving into the ‘steamy intervention’ of the spirits in life, that’s the goal, “she added.
Witches … put into consideration of believers and faithful an extensive catalog, impossible to visualize and enjoy entirely at once. It features works by renowned intellectuals and artists such as the researcher Natalia Bolívar, who presented her voodoo dolls in a glass case, called “Five Spirits”.
It can also be appreciated an installation with ashes of human corpses, by Iván Perera, from his series ¨Inmanentes. ¨Digital prints by Álvaro José Brunet, Susan Bank, and Rodney Batista are also part of the sample, along with works by Javier Alejandro Bobadilla Diaz, Jose Bedia and Juan Francisco Elso Padilla.
Tania Bruguera exhibits a video installation that records the petition to the pope to support the community of immigrants and undocumented to apply for citizenship of Vatican City in 2014. It can also be seen an interesting photograph dating from 1983 of Colón Cemetery, in silver on gelatin, by Pedro Abascal. Santiago Rodríguez Olazábal, known for addressing religious themes in his work, presents a large format poster board: “El mal le entró por abajo.” The exhibition also includes a video-projection by Marta María Pérez Bravo, undoubtedly one of the most spiritual pieces. The installation “EPD” by Jose Angel Vincench, gold dust on bed sheets and candles, and a picture from 2010 by Manuel Mendive, National Plastic Arts Award are other major attractions of the sample.
The Canadian duo The Fastwurms (Kim Kozzi and Dai Skuse), with their medieval sorcerers costumes, including conical hat, arrived with their “Love is Law”, installation of variable dimensions: a spider web made of black brassieres. Other important works are “Rey incompetente” (Incompetent King) by Hugo Consuegra, ink and pen nib on cardboard (1959) and the piece from 1993 by Roberto Diago: “Motivo de bosque ” (Forest Motive), a mixed technique on masonite, of great vitality and expression as much of his work.
The space ´Aglutinador´ will continue exhibiting genuine and transgressive art as “emergency room” and autonomous space for the promotion and development of the Visual Arts, as explained by its founder:
“This exhibition gives continuity to the work of our exclusive space, not exclusive at all, to spread witchcraft of the world, since the dawn of humanity to present days, passing through the traditions, religions, spells, enchantments and philosophies of different sites and historical moments. As already shown in the past, ¨Aglutinador¨ is always being renewed to create alternative projects within its alternative purpose,” Ceballos noted.
