From tomorrow Saturday until the 23rd of March, Casa América presents in its Frida Kahlo and Guayasamín halls the exhibition Reinventions. The ubiquity of identities in photography from the Caribbean, which is presented as a space that challenges the notions that still prevail and function in the imaginary of “the Dominican or the Caribbean”. With this exhibition Casa de América joins the activities of ARCOmadrid 2024, which in its 43rd edition will have the Caribbean Sea as its central axis.
Photography can be a tool for the construction and circulation of identities, contexts and places. Photography is mediation, a bridge between memory and aspiration, between the past, the future and the fragile line that is the present.
This exhibition is made up of two fundamental nuclei that are conceptually intertwined: historical photography and the continuity of the various themes and approaches raised in the first space, in the present day.
The first part is dedicated to the historical photography that was generated in the Dominican Republic after three decades of the dictatorship of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo (1930-1961), replacing the previous production, loaded with romantic and sweetened contents of reality, and based mainly on the exegesis of the prevailing regime. In addition to exploring the origins of contemporary Dominican photography, this selection shows the contributions of this artistic expression in the search for the possible components of a new national imaginary. The selection reveals some of the most important and paradigmatic references of society and space that were being constructed in the Dominican Republic and the Caribbean from the 1960s onwards.
Following the historical nucleus, a space dedicated to the production of contemporary meaning is proposed, entitled Sujeto encontrado (Found Subject). This exhibition area proposes a coherent historical continuity in the practice of photography from a Caribbean expanded in the contemporary world. The photographic as fact, event and language shows an indisputable independence that is evident in its spectrum of action and influence and in the unfailing recognition of the multiple identities that inhabit us.
This exhibition is produced in collaboration with Centro León in the Dominican Republic and curated by Sara Hermann and Joel Butler. Free admission until full capacity is reached.
