Escaping the Tyrannies of Geopolitical Space: Cuban Artists and Curators Operating Outside the Parameters of Sanctioned Institutions

In this essay, we examine the themes of cultural transmission, transformation, and exchange within a transnational and trans-local framework. We specifically focus on Cuban cultural production on and off the island through its visual arts. Through a transtemporal and transgenerational perspective, we explore the artwork, exhibitions, and “institutions” produced by key Cuban diasporic artists Leandro Soto and Carlos Cárdenes and curator Solveig Font. They have successfully established themselves domestically and internationally outside of sanctioned cultural and state institutions by creating transnational and transcultural modes of production and exchange. We envision, therefore, the boundaries of Cuban art, artists, and curators as a network that includes the Cuban diaspora and its multiple, sometimes contradictory or antagonistic, but not less emotionally charged, relationships with the island. Cubanness thus extends beyond the limits of the nation-state and enters a state of perpetual becoming.