April 13, 2016 Yadira Leyva Ayón © Belkis Ayón Estate Belkis Ayón's work will be part of the exhibition "Memories" that will open next Thursday, April 14 at 6:00 pm in the Gallery Orígenes of the Gran Teatro de La Habana «Alicia Alonso». This exhibition brings together, in addition to Ayón's engravings, pieces by Ibrahim Miranda and Sandra Ramos, three of the most important contemporary artists of the 90s in Cuba. PREVIOUS NEWS NEXT NEWS

Talk about the myths of art. Interview with Belkis Ayón Jaime Sarusky February 4, 1999 © Revolución y Cultura, No 2-3 / 99, p. 68-71 To tell the truth, it was not easy to interview Belkis Ayón, despite appearances, that is, his youth, the recognition that his artistic work has had, his personality, that one would bet very accessible, frank and open as his laugh. But do not confuse such attributes with the vehemence, I would say even the passion, of the creator Belkis Ayón, the one who with steely lucidity knows the paths of yesterday and today of her work. And I'm sure tomorrow too. But his humility and pride, traits that coexist in many authentic artists, prevent him from sanctioning such a prognosis. Although in his heart every great artist knows that it is, the challenge to time is raised and time, in turn, challenges it. Time, for better or for worse, can do everything, except with the great art that resists it, transcends it and walks by its side with an ironic smile. We are in front of his mural La Cena that is in the Ludwig Foundation. It is a tenaciously mysterious piece. I would not hesitate to say that it has many readings. But tell me your story La Cena was first seen in public in 1988 at the Servando Cabrera de Playa gallery. I conceived it to print in color but once it was printed and displayed I was not satisfied with the results. So I dedicated myself to preparing it for my graduate thesis and in 1991 I modified it and took it to black and white. The first figure, top left, has his face covered with his hands. The main idea is from Dinner ... Are you referring to the traditional dinner? Yes, but as a main idea. And I had in mind for a long time. Dinner is for women, except for two men, one who is on the right, the black figure who is completely indifferent, as if he is going to leave the composition, and another who has a black face. What are the elements of mythology present there? One of them is the background. It is made with the Anaforuanas or “signatures”: the cross, the circle and the cross within the circle, symbolism of the different branches that influenced or where the myth arose as such this type of societies, efik, efor and ori bibi. The + sign corresponds to efik, the O efor and oru-bibi. Another element that I use is the scale. The fish's scale, the sacred fish. And also the type of symbology that I have taken to mean the man with the leopard skin, which is a concentric circle, a little elongated with various points around it. And, in addition, figures that have a design that suggests a relationship with femininity. And the bandage? When someone who is in the process of being initiated is going to enter the sacred room, the Fambá, before entering it, they are blindfolded. It's like a kind of ceremonial dinner. There is a figure that is starting or about to start. What is celebrated with this ritual? In this case it is something that perhaps existed. But it is not something that happens. From the point of view of the religious ceremony there is a part that is food, but it has nothing to do with this idea of dinner. This is totally symbolic. Another figure has a snake around his neck. In Abakuá mythology, it is the animal sent by the tribe's sorcerer to find out what had happened in the river when the Tanze fish disappeared. Then the Nasakó sends two snakes to see what has happened. And on the way back they appear to him and surprise Sikán, who gets scared and drops the güiro that he was carrying on his head. That is why the snake is always a company for her. It can be threatening, it can be preventive, or it can simply be companionship. And depending on the idea I also use it as a phallic element. Now why the scales and the significance of the fish? The fish was the way, the vehicle that contained the secret, that is, it was the being that contained the secret. The secret was a voice. Here it is no longer fish on that plate. No, not anymore, because this figure, that of the man with the black head, kind of broke into the women's dinner and ingested the fish. His plate is already empty, as is the gourd that accompanies each of the figures next to the plate. The fish is the sacred being. In this women's dinner, two figures wear the skin of the fish, thus relating the fate of the fish with the fate that Sikán will have or had. It is assumed that among the Abakuá women do not play any role, they are out of that world. Anyone could think that his is a daring because he is transgressing what is taboo. It is out from the point of view of professing religion. But it is inside, deep inside, because it was a woman who discovered the secret. And from that discovery is that, somehow, all this kind of story arises. What was the secret? The secret was the voice. According to the myth, appropriating that fish that contained the voice meant that whoever reached it would be the richest and most prosperous tribe. It was power. In reality the fish was the reincarnation of an old king who predicted such events. The guilt of the woman when she discovered the secret eliminated her from the rituals of the Abakuá universe. Yes, and I also think that, like all these stories of myths and legends, there are different versions. One of them maintains that the woman is excluded for having given information to the enemy tribe. But I think that it is not necessary for a viewer to have knowledge of the myths, the Abakuá ritual or the meanings of each of its components to admire or be impressed by his work. The thing would be to know why it impresses ... What does that engraving have? First of all, the mystery. These apparently passive characters convey an atmosphere of tension, of suspicion. Strange diners who are also symbols. There is a sense of uncertainty due to the weight of the allegorical. It would seem that they challenge us, by the very scene presented by these disconcerting protagonists, to go back to the mists of the early days. There they are, simultaneously, the myth and the complex human matter; they transcend time and if by chance I saw that work years ago and I see it again now, I still think that it comes to me as something telluric, unfathomable. I think about these things at the moment when I am doing them. After I print them and it has been so long, like it is no longer mine and I stop thinking about it. Now I was thinking about tension, as something that is contained, where something happened or is going to happen. Something like that. And the eyes on your characters? Actually the eyes in my work is what impresses people, what intrigues them because they are eyes that look at you very directly, so I think you cannot hide, wherever you move they are always there looking at you, they are there making you an accomplice of what you are seeing. And, above all, in these pieces that are large, you are almost at the same level, at the same size, it is someone with whom you are living there in some way. The fact of being characters that do not have a defined face is helping to feed the myth and the symbol. There is no detail that places them in a historical context: they have no clothes or hairstyle. From those clothes or from that hairstyle it could be deduced that they are characters of this or more than that moment. When you conceive these characters — let's call them somehow — you are not thinking of an anecdote, at a certain moment, but you are simply thinking of an episode of the Abakuá universe that you want to represent ... Yes, I think it is the latter to which you refer and also a little more, there is always something else. I really enjoy the fact of working, of filling the characters with something, that is, through the textures, the shapes, not being devoid of clothes. Clothes are the skin that I put on depending on what is happening, on what I want to say. For example, the scales. As I had told you before, it is the skin of a fish and for many people it can also be the skin of a snake. I mean, there is all that ambiguity. Now, how did he enter, how could he appropriate the knowledge of the Abakuá world? It was out of curiosity, to face something that one reads, talks about or sees for the first time. It is not what one is used to and feels that it attracts them and begins to investigate, to seek information. And his father? It is not Abakuá. And in my family no one is, except a cousin. It is important that I say so because stories have been made up that all the men in my family are Abakuá. Not at all. We are two sisters, nothing more. For what reason does it reach you with such force that it becomes the subject, the subject of your artistic work? That interest arose when I was studying engraving at San Alejandro. There were so many things that attracted me to Afro-Cuban cultures; my taste for going to rumba Saturdays and when the National Folk Ensemble had its seasons at the Mella Theater. Also the magazine The UNESCO Courier. At school I was very interested in the numbers that had to do with African culture. In my grandmother's house there was a poster with some items announcing the performances given by Folklorico and Sara Gómez's film, In a certain way. It could also have been the fact that my uncle had among his books, that he could see and leaf through all the time, Los Ñáñigos, by Enrique Sosa, or some suggestions that my teachers from San Alejandro made to me to read The Abakuá Secret Society narrated by its old followers, by Lydia Cabrera, or The African Diaspora, and a bit of all that. Or a catalog that my father gave me from a retrospective they made in Paris of Lam's painting. These things I simplify. I discovered that there were no artists working on this theme at that time, but others such as Santeria, voodoo, spiritism and palo monte. The reading of different stories of the myth also influenced. It seemed so plastic to me, as if it were passing in front of me, where faces appeared and disappeared. Also, there is no figurative iconography, except, of course, the signatures. Then I saw that there was a possibility, there was a whole world that I could perfectly create, from the fact that you already know what stories are like. How do you explain that those characters without faces have such intensity, such density? There are things in the works that one cannot explain oneself. The tension ... I did not think of it, it was not something preconceived. He left. I say that something always accompanies me that is like a good sign, a good company: intuition. Perhaps my work is that: they are things that I have inside and that I throw out because they are burdens that cannot be lived with and cannot be dragged. Could it be said that you detach yourself, in the same creative process, from many of these myths? I detach myself; and not because I think that always, even if I want to say something else, I am using the same symbology and the same figuration and the same signs that I use when I want to refer specifically to a scene or a detail that is, strictly, from mythology, although later, perhaps, he will turn it over and want to say something else. But they are fixed elements in my work. Right now I'm using more personal things; however, I continue to use the character of Sikán, the fish, the goat, the scales, the snake, I continue to use crumpled papers and the symbols that I have always used in another situation, but with other content. I use colography because it seems to me the most appropriate technique to say what I want. That is first. In addition, it is the technique with which I can work large formats, whatever I want, and I like the manufacturing of the piece, it fascinates me. So all that process I enjoy tremendously. It is one of the reasons why he continues to do collography. If I painted would it be the same? No, it wouldn't be the same. It is that I do not have in my mind to conceive this for painting. It is a limitation that I have in the eyes of many. But, above all things, I consider myself a tape recorder. And I'm not going to stop being one for the moment. Do you think that the most important thing you had to express as an artist has already been said in your work or do you think that you have not yet exhausted all its possibilities? Those are questions that I ask myself all the time. Once, in conversation with my friend Antonio Martorell, a Puerto Rican printmaker and painter, he told me: it is incredible how one becomes obsessed with certain subjects, and even if one does it differently, that is always there. In other words, obsession and turning around and falling into the same thing. And I wondered if he was repeating myself. Just imagine. Maybe, yes, maybe, no. The problem is that I feel that there are many people who are very simple when it comes to talking about an artist and a production. It is much easier to say: Ah, look, she works on the abakuá! It's fine, but there's not much more to it than that . And since he speaks of obsession in the themes, just the same thing can happen to a viewer with his characters. They are and they are not, as you say. And they are characters who are saying things to me or are questioning me ... Exactly. I think that's what they are questioning. Interrogating others. A little that others are accomplices of what is happening there. As if they said: Here things are not clear. It is a disturbing situation. The title of my last exhibition, which was shown in Los Angeles, was Restlessness. Maybe that's the play. After so many years I realize the uneasiness. And perhaps that restlessness, as much or more than a religious character, has ... I'm going to tell you, it is more existential than religious. How were your beginnings since you studied at San Alejandro? I was sixteen years old in 83-84 when I was studying at San Alejandro and I had enormous problems with drawing, when the teachers suspended me a lot because I was a very bad draftsman with a model. And my figures looked like sticks. How did you get over that? More than drawing, thinking. And watching a lot and looking a lot. Many times I talk to my students who also work figuratively and have drawing problems. I tell them: look, I am not asking you for an academy, I am not asking you for hyper-realism, I ask you to convince me with what you are putting there. That that hand is credible, perhaps a little more, a little less, but that there is no disproportion, that it does not bother the eye. One of the characteristics that distinguishes his work is the absence of color. Does the use of white or black have a meaning? White is a value. Like black. Like the grays. The value is not the color, the value is the point of attention in the work. A figure because it is white, it is not white. A figure is white because it is a point of attention and because I work with white, black and values. That person may be black, but the value is white. In other words, it has a compositional sense. Exactly. Like this black man who makes a turn; the black goes there, in the serpent, in the face, in this eye and goes up to the other eyes that are inverted, returns to the black eye and goes to the black of the edge. The inclusion of black is a problem of composition, balance and rhythm in the piece. What is your relationship with the Abakuá universe: affective, cognitive? A difficult question. It is the way, the way, the solution that I found to say what I wanted. And I tell him: it is like letting go, and I have let myself go. When you go to work on this issue, at some point do you not do it like in a trance state? In a trance, but in quotes. The phenomenon is one of concentration, a problem of believing at the moment that I am doing it, even perhaps of acting. There is a bit of theatricality in all that ... Yes, it is very theatrical, like the ceremony of the Abakuá. For Fernando Ortiz it was like a theatrical performance. It is like bringing theater to religion. And religion to the theater. As for the trance, it is, above all, the concentration and the forced foot that they put me when working. In addition to the passion for the subject, the very fact of having been working on it for many years, does it not somehow reflect a fear on your part? That is, to stay conservatively in it because it does not initiate or face other subjects. Ah, look, maybe that's it. Of course, unconscious fear. I believe that there are unconscious things that become conscious. In your case, does it become conscious? I think so. I think that one can say things like that, and in another way. But I want to keep it that way. For now, because this is what I need to say. One of its characteristics is originality. I take from a million things. What I see that I like, I do. There is a whole screening process. I think this is like my son, this is something that I created. If I created it, I don't have to abandon it if I still have things to say. Well, forgive me, but you can have a child and then have another without necessarily abandoning the first. Ah well, for now I sit with only one! —Suddenly, when you get up in the morning, you say to yourself, I'm going to work today, do you already know what you're going to do? No. Until I have it here (he puts his index finger to his temple), I don't do anything. While that is happening I am looking at my books, the books that I buy, that I like, that are art. And as I go through them I say to myself, I like this composition, here I am going to put Fulano, Mengano and Ciclano. And this has to do with it, I want to talk about dissatisfaction, intolerance, I want to talk about betrayal or I want to talk about sacrifices. Many compositions I take, for example, from the family. The Family was a piece that had long been crushed on his head. I used to say, this has to come out somewhere. And it all came from the work of Gauguin Ana la Javanesa. That I love it; That is very important to me, that it marked me ... And the family comes out of that work, of that figure sitting so calmly. You have said that among your plastic references, in addition to those of the Abakuá universe, there were also Byzantine icons. The reference of the icons is purely formal. It is the shape of the arches, of the altarpieces, they always attracted me a lot and it was like inventing an iconography for these people. And also many times the compositions that I like so much. And I tell him that my work is the one that surprises me because it is the one that has led me to be what I am, not because I proposed it. Could it be that there is a certain ignorance of yourself, of who you are? If it is accepted that your characters, in addition to being disturbing, are defiant, one has every right to suppose that there is a struggle in you, between the Belkis that you want to challenge and the other that you knew is calm and that you want to go unnoticed. I think I'm out there. Is the fact that you are a woman and black reflecting your challenging characters in any way? Not at all, or at least, I don't intend to. It's just that I've never had a racial problem, you understand? Let me explain. I know that she has not had problems, on the contrary, anyone who sees her would say that she is a winner. But both you and I know ... I think these are things that are manipulated a lot and maybe they manipulate us or manipulate me. But it is not a conscious thing. In your work each signature is based on the idea that you are raising. That's how it is. Even in a work there may be different signatures but depending on the characters or their relationship with others. Yes. You start from the Abakuá myths as a source of your creative production, but the result, the work of art as such, is already something else, it transcends the reasons that originated it to become universal. It can be given more than one interpretation, even a connoisseur is impressed, not because of the mastery he may have of the matter but because of the indisputable artistic result. I really like the subtle things in the work, but also that the viewer is awake enough to discover them. BACK TO INTERVIEWS next article

NKAME: A RETROSPECTIVE OF THE CUBAN PRINTMAKER BELKIS AYÓN (1967-1999) Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri, United States January 25, 2018 - April 29, 2018 The traveling exhibition Nkame: A Retrospective of the Cuban printmaker Belkis Ayón (1967-1999) was inaugurated on January 25, 2018, at its third venue, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. A project organized by this prestigious institution and the Belkis Ayón Estate, Havana Cuba. The exhibition is curated by Cristina Vives. Exhibition Tour Management by Landau Traveling Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA. Photographs: José A. Figueroa, Havana, Cuba, and courtesy of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri. For more information, visit the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art website Press coverage KC Studio. Covering Kansas City's performing, visual, cinematic, and literary arts http://kcstudio.org/critically-acclaimed-show-cuban-printmaker-stops-kemper-museum-belkis-ayon Earthquake http://terremoto.mx/nkame-a-retrospective-of-cuban-printmaker-belkis-ayon-1967-1999/ Informality http://informalityblog.com/nkame-cuban-mythology-through-the-eyes-of-belkis-ayon/

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Fundación Los Carbonell y Estate Belkis Ayón presentan en Cuba el libro Nkame Mafimba e inauguran la exposición Mi alma y yo te queremos . La Habana, septiembre de 2025 – El próximo 11 de septiembre en la Galería Salón Blanco (Basílica y Convento de San Francisco de Asís, Oficina del Historiador de la Ciudad de La Habana) tendrán lugar dos momentos especiales dedicados a la artista Belkis Ayón. A las 3:00 pm, el Estate Belkis Ayón y la Fundación Los Carbonell presentarán en Cuba, por primera vez, Nkame Mafimba , segunda y actualizada edición del catálogo razonado de la artista, publicado por Editorial Turner (Madrid) en 2024. La presentación contará con la participación de la Dra. Lázara Menéndez (profesora universitaria), Ernesto Leyva (director del Estate Belkis Ayón), y las curadoras Corina Matamoros y Sandra García Herrera. Posteriormente, a las 4:00 pm, se inaugurará la exposición colectiva Mi alma y yo te queremos, organizada por la Fundación Los Carbonell, el proyecto malaYerba y el Estate Belkis Ayón, bajo la curaduría de Sandra García Herrera y con la asistencia curatorial de Camila Marín. Un homenaje a Belkis Ayón El título de la exposición se inspira en un grabado de la artista y funciona como un gesto colectivo de afecto y admiración hacia ella. Participan artistas que fueron colegas, discípulos y continuadores de su legado, junto con jóvenes grabadores vinculados al proyecto Espacio Ayón. La muestra incluye un conjunto de impresiones y matrices de la propia Belkis, cedidas por su Estate. Artistas: Ángel Ramírez / Sandra Ramos / Ibrahim Miranda / Abel Barroso / Isary Paulet / Antonio Martorell / Eduardo Roca (Choco) / Juan Carlos Rivero / Lidzie Alvisa / Yamilys Brito / Frank E. Martínez / Janette Brossard / Norberto Marrero / Anyelmaidelín Calzadilla / Octavio Irving / Aliosky García / Orlando Montalván / Osmeivy Ortega / Marcel Molina Una fecha simbólica La jornada se realiza el 11 de septiembre, día en que se cumplen 26 años del fallecimiento de Belkis Ayón, y coincide con el natalicio de Eusebio Leal Spengler, historiador de la ciudad y principal impulsor de la preservación del Convento de San Francisco de Asís, actual sede de la Galería Salón Blanco. La exposición se mantendrá abierta hasta noviembre del presente año. Con esta nueva muestra la Fundación Los Carbonell reafirma su vocación de crear espacios donde los grandes referentes del arte cubano vuelvan a encontrarse con las nuevas generaciones de artistas, curadores e investigadores. Belkis Ayón (La Habana, 1967-1999) Figura esencial del grabado contemporáneo cubano y espíritu aglutinador de su generación. Graduada de la Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro y del Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA), donde también ejerció la docencia, dejó una obra marcada por la innovación técnica y la hondura simbólica. Su legado abrió caminos en la estampa cubana y sigue convocando a quienes compartieron con ella el taller, la enseñanza y la amistad.

CONFLUENCES INSIDE Havana, Mexico, United States, Portugal November 2006 - 2010 Cubarte Newsletter Year 7 Number 25, June 20, 2007 Exhibition "Confluencias" is presented in Mexico By: Nelson Herrera Ysla The exhibition "Confluencias", with works by 26 Cuban artists of various generations, has been inaugurated at the Museum of Modern Art of Toluca, of the Mexiquense Institute of Culture, after their presentations at the Clavijero Palace of the City of Morelia (where the idea for the project arose thanks to the enthusiasm of the Constitutional Governor of the State of Michoacán, Mr. Lázaro Cárdenas Batel) and at the José Luis Cuevas Museum in the Federal District. The exhibition, curated by Juan Delgado, had the advice of Elvia Rosa Castro, and an excellent catalog designed by the Cuban team Baus Diseño, printed in large format in Mexico. It brings together more than 70 works, mainly in painting as well as drawing, printmaking, photography, sculpture and video by some of the most notable Cuban artists, from Alfredo Sosabravo and Manuel Mendive to Alain Pino, the youngest. Participating in it: Roberto Fabelo , Nelson Domínguez , Arturo Montoto, Belkis Ayón, Eduardo Roca , Ernesto Rancaño, Flora Fong, José A. Toirac, Lester Campa, Los Carpinteros, Luis Gómez, Pedro Pablo Oliva , Rigoberto Mena, Roberto Diago, Rubén Rodríguez, Santiago Rodríguez Olazábal, Zaida del Río , Carlos Quintana, Aymée García, Carlos Montes de Oca, Eduardo Ponjuán, Alexis Leyva (Kcho), Agustín Bejarano. Unfolded in over 400 square meters, the exhibition offers a synthetic panorama of recent productions of Cuban visuality where the two dimensions stand out from the rest, and in which it is possible to appreciate the strength of painting in our country, a phenomenon that today begins to gain notoriety in events and fairs around the world. The large format of the works and the balance between various modes of expression contribute to their interest in the artistic and communication media as well as in the Mexican public: these allow us to reflect on Cuban visual arts and inform about our culture of the image in constant process of expansion. The inauguration was attended by Mr. Agustín Gasca Pliego, General Director of IMexC, Lic. Vivian Martínez Tabares, Cultural Counselor of the Cuban Embassy in that country, Laura Castañedo, Artistic Secretary of Ars Latina 2007 and Cuban artists invited to participate in this project that will take place during the month of June in Baja California. Also present were the curator of the exhibition Juan Delgado, the art critic Nelson Herrera Ysla and the artist Arturo Montoto. So much interest has aroused "Confluencias", whose original project was limited only to the city of Morelia, and today their presentations in the states of Tabasco and Guanajuato for this year 2007 are in the process of being coordinated. Source: CUBARTE Participating artists: Agustín Bejarano, Aimée García, Alain Pino, Alexis Leyva (KCHO), Alfredo Sosabravo, Arturo Montoto, Belkis Ayón, Carlos Montes de Oca, Carlos Quintana, Eduardo Ponjuán, Eduardo Roca (CHOCO), Ernesto Rancaño, Flora Fong, José A, Toirac, Lester Campa, Los Carpinteros, Luis Gómez, Manuel Mendive, Nelson Domínguez, Pedro Pablo Oliva, Rigoberto Mena, Roberto Diago, Roberto Fabelo, Rubén Rodríguez, Santiago Rodríguez Olazábal, Zaida del Río.

COLLECTIVE EXHIBITIONS Ajiaco: Stirrings of the Cuban soul Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London, Connecticut, United States September 12, 2009 - February 21, 2010 Read more Roots & More. Journey of the Spirits Afrika Museum, Berg en Dal, Holland April 7 - November 7, 2009 Read more Cuba, Mexico, United States, Portugal November 2006 - 2010 Confluences Inside Read more return to collective exhibitions

DRAPETOMANIA Galería de Arte Universal, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba / Consejo Nacional de Artes Plásticas, La Habana / 8th Floor Gallery, New York, United States / Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, California, United States / The Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States. April, 2013 - 2015 The exhibition Drapetomanía: Grupo Antillano y the Art of Afro-Cuba, which was presented in Santiago de Cuba and Havana, arrives at Harvard University after having been shown in New York and San Francisco. Originally exhibited at the Provincial Center of Plastic Arts and Design in Santiago de Cuba (April-May, 2013), where it was described as "one of the best exhibitions of plastic arts in recent years in Santiago de Cuba," Drapetomanía now travels to the Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African and Afro-American Art at Harvard University after have been exhibited at the Center for the Development of the Visual Arts in Havana, The 8th Floor Gallery in New York and the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) in San Francisco. Drapetomanía pays tribute to Grupo Antillano (1978-1983), a previously forgotten cultural and artistic movement, which proposed a vision of Cuban culture that highlighted the importance of African and Afro-Caribbean elements in the formation of the nation. The exhibition offers a revisionist reading of the so-called “new Cuban art” and highlights the need to include the work of artists who tried to think about the Cuban from their connections with the African diaspora. Grupo Antillano's art is part of a long Caribbean tradition of resistance and cultural affirmation, of that "prodigious effort of self-defense" and of "ideological cimarronearía" that, according to the Haitian poet René Depestre, allowed the enslaved masses of the hemisphere rework their pasts and cultures. The title of the show, Drapetomania, refers to an alleged illness described in the mid-19th century by a plantation physician in Louisiana. From the Greek drapetes (escape, flee) and mania (madness), the most visible symptom of this curious disease was the irrepressible and pathological tendency of many slaves to flee and be free. In other words, the doctor described maroon as a disease, a disease, a deviation from the natural order, an expression of the indomitable savagery of blacks. Curated by historian Alejandro de la Fuente, professor at Harvard University, the Drapetomanía exhibition is complemented by the book Grupo Antillano: el arte de Afro-Cuba, edited by the curator of the exhibition, with essays by art critics and historians like Guillermina Ramos Cruz, José Veigas and Judith Bettelheim. The exhibition includes works by Grupo Antillano artists (Esteban Ayala, Rogelio Rodríguez Cobas, Manuel Couceiro, Herminio Escalona, Ever Fonseca, Ramón Haiti, Adelaida Herrera, Arnaldo Rodríguez Larrinaga, Oscar Rodríguez Lasseria, Alberto Lescay, Manuel Mendive, Leonel Morales, Clara Morera, Miguel Ocejo, Rafael Queneditt and Julia Valdés) and a group of contemporary artists who have shown in their work similar concerns to those articulated by Grupo Antillano (Belkis Ayón, Bedia, Choco, Diago, Esquivel, Marta María Pérez Bravo, Montalván, Olazábal, Douglas Pérez, Peña, Elio Rodríguez and Leandro Soto). In other words, Drapetomanía proposes a new genealogy in Cuban plastic arts that connects creators from generations and diverse artistic trajectories through their shared attention to issues such as race, identity, and the meanings of the Cuban. The show will be exhibited at Harvard from January 29 to the end of May of this year. Information provided by Alejandro de la Fuente, Curator.

FRG: BELKIS AYÓN Gallery FRG OBJECTS & DESIGN / ART, Hudson, New York, United States. August - September, 2014 The FRG OBJECTS & DESIGN / ART gallery, specialized in the art of design, from Hudson, New York, had the pleasure of presenting in August last year, a collection of visionary pieces, rarely appreciated in the United States, by the Cuban artist Belkis Ayón (Havana, 1967-1999), from the private collection of Carole and Alex Rosenberg. The pieces could be appreciated in an environment designed in parity, complete harmony, and connection with these masterpieces of contemporary Cuban printmaking. The exhibition opened to the public until September 30, 2014.

DESASOSIEGO/RESTLESSNESS Couturier Gallery, Los Angeles, California, United States. March, 1998 Catalog text: Belkis Ayón. Desasosiego/ Restlessness. When Darrel Couturier sent the request by fax for the title for this exhibition I still did not have it, I had not even thought about it, to be honest. That day I had a great commitment to attend the opening of the first personal exhibition of two of my students. After finishing my work as a spectator and as a guardian angel (teacher), I went to my friend Cristina's house where I would meet Rafa who would bring the letter to Darrel with the title of the exhibition. When I left, still nothing occurred to me - I entered a state of desperation imperceptible to the eye - again showing my moderate personality, except to laugh and do large collographies. I thought about the works that I had already finished and I asked myself what feelings they have in common since I have been working on the subject for years in general - and I associate it a little with what I have been feeling in recent months, a great RESTLESSNESS, something that almost unconsciously began to appear in my work. As I mentioned earlier, the subject that I have been working on for years since I began to study in the third year of San Alejandro Academy, it's one of the components of the Cuban culture on the African side, the carabalíes and from them, the Abakuá Secret Society composed only by men, which emerged in the 1830s in the 19th century in Cuba. Above all, I intend to give my vision, my point of view as an observer, presenting in a synthetic way the aesthetic, plastic, and poetic aspect that I have discovered in Abakuá, relating it to the questioning of the nature of man, with personal experiences, that feeling that sometimes captures us and we do not know how to define them, with those fleeting emotions, with the spiritual incorporating symbols from other cultures that I use to express my ideas with greater richness and quality. I work with characters such as the leopard man, identifying with him the power, the composition, the aggression of society, a male who sacrifices Sikán, a woman who discovers the secret and dies for the sake of passing it to men, and not disappearing. The secret consisted of a voice, a SACRED VOICE, produced by a FISH discovered by her when she returned from the river, the fish was the reincarnation of Old Obón, Tanzé, of Abasí, the Supreme God. The transmission of the sacred voice was finally settled on the hide of a goat vibrating on the sacred drum of EKUE. My images come to them through the engraving technique of collography, which consists of a kind of collage printed with a wide variety of materials placed and glued on a cardboard support. Sikán, a woman who prevails in the works presented, because she, like me, lived and lives through me in restlessness, insistently looking for a way out. Belkis Ayón Havana, Cuba, January 1998.

AN INTERDISCIPLINARY COURSE IN ORDER TO IMPROVE ENGLISH LANGUAGE SKILLS February 6, 2015 Humberto Figueroa. Director of the Museum of Cayey, Puerto Rico © Belkis Ayón Estate This year the Museo de Cayey from Puerto Rico was the place selected to take the final exam of an interdisciplinary course to improve skills in the English language. On this occasion, the exam consisted of choosing and speaking in English about a piece in the exhibition from the Antonio Martorell art collection. This exhibition responds to the concept of the artist-collector, developed by Martorell, who affirms that for different reasons, artists are sometimes the people with the most important art collections in their countries. The mysterious character in the image is a student who selected the piece by Belkis Ayón and covered his face, alluding to the work it represented. In this case, the young man spoke about the work and its author, describing his opinion about the representation of the mystery, the hidden or the unknown in Belkis's work. PREVIOUS NEWS NEXT NEWS

RESLESSNESS / RESLESSNESS Belkis Ayón Manso When Darrel Couturier sent to request by fax the title for this exhibition he still did not have it, he had not even thought about it, to be honest. That day I had a great commitment to attend the opening of the first personal exhibition of two of my students. After finishing my work as a spectator and as a guardian angel (teacher), I went to my friend Cristina's house where I would meet Rafa who would bring the letter to Darrel with the title of the exhibition. When I left this other, nothing occurred to me - I entered a state of desperation imperceptible to the eye - again showing my moderate personality, less to laugh and do great colography. I thought about the works that I had already finished and I asked myself what feelings they have in common, since in general I have been working on the subject for years - and I associate it a little with what I have been feeling in recent months, a great UNREST, something that almost unconsciously my work began to appear. As, I previously mentioned the subject that I have been working on for years, since I began to study in the 3 year of the San Alejandro Academy, it is one of the components of Cuban culture on the African side, the carabalíes and of them, the Secret Society Abakúa, made up only of men, which emerged in the 1930s in the 19th century in Cuba. Above all, I intend to give my vision, my point of view as an observer, presenting in a synthetic way the aesthetic, plastic and poetic aspect that I have discovered in Abakúa relating it to the questioning of the nature of man, with personal experiences, that feeling that sometimes it captures and we do not know how to define them, with those fleeting emotions, with the spiritual incorporating symbols from other cultures that I use to express my ideas with greater richness and quality. I work with characters such as the leopard man, identifying with him the power, the composition, the aggression of society, a male who sacrifices Sikán, a woman who discovers the secret and dies for the sake of it passing to men and not disappearing. The secret consisted of a voice, SACRED VOICE, produced by a FISH discovered by her when she returned from the river, the fish was the reincarnation of Old Obón, Tanzé, of Abasí, the Supreme God. The transmission of the sacred voice was finally settled on the hide of a goat vibrating on the sacred drum of EKUE. My images come to them through the technical colography of engraving that consists of a kind of collage printed with a wide variety of materials placed and glued on a cardboard support. Sikán, a woman who prevails in the works presented because she, like me, lived and lives through me in uneasiness, insistently looking for a way out. Belkis Ayon Havana, Cuba, January 1998 BACK TO REVELATIONS NEXT ARTICLE