Cuban Feminism : Body, Land and Religion
Cuban Feminism: Religion, Body, and Land is an interdisciplinary exhibition about the connection between the female body, nature, and feminist art. The exhibition aims to showcase Cuban women artists’ approaches as a way to examine Cuban feminine energy both in exile and on the island while challenging gender politics and sexual biases.
During the 1980s, after the challenging“gray” period of significant government censorship of the media and limited artistic exploration, many artistic innovations emerged in Cuba. One of the most influential movements introduced by the new Cuban art was expressing women’s problems from their points of view. In the 1980s, many of the women artists included in this exhibition became interested in integrating aspects of feminist art into their works, projecting the body and intimate concerns of social and cultural problems.
However, their use of the female body differs significantly from traditional Western art that uses the female body as a vehicle of sexuality for the male gaze. Instead, the use of the female body in these works aims to create a tension of vis-à-vis the female body to open up a new gendered space that is not defined by bodily nakedness. The body does not portray the beauty or sexuality of the female form; it functions as a symbolic meaning or support of a ritual that addresses a cultural and collective gaze.
The artists included in this exhibition were selected for their artistic interest in sociopolitical issues surrounding gender and womanhood. The exhibition also considers how Cuban culture and society influenced them to portray their experiences in a specific way using religion, body, and land. Although this exhibition is not strictly about Cuba and feminist issues in Cuba, these artists’ works might question the claim that, in Cuba, “feminism is not our issue.”
During the 1980s, after the challenging“gray” period of significant government censorship of the media and limited artistic exploration, many artistic innovations emerged in Cuba. One of the most influential movements introduced by the new Cuban art was expressing women’s problems from their points of view. In the 1980s, many of the women artists included in this exhibition became interested in integrating aspects of feminist art into their works, projecting the body and intimate concerns of social and cultural problems.
However, their use of the female body differs significantly from traditional Western art that uses the female body as a vehicle of sexuality for the male gaze. Instead, the use of the female body in these works aims to create a tension of vis-à-vis the female body to open up a new gendered space that is not defined by bodily nakedness. The body does not portray the beauty or sexuality of the female form; it functions as a symbolic meaning or support of a ritual that addresses a cultural and collective gaze.
The artists included in this exhibition were selected for their artistic interest in sociopolitical issues surrounding gender and womanhood. The exhibition also considers how Cuban culture and society influenced them to portray their experiences in a specific way using religion, body, and land. Although this exhibition is not strictly about Cuba and feminist issues in Cuba, these artists’ works might question the claim that, in Cuba, “feminism is not our issue.”