From:           "Moritz Neumueller" <[log in to unmask]>
To:             <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:        Call for papers (to all members of the SOCIETY FOR CARIBBEAN
STUDIES)
Date sent:      Wed, 4 Dec 2002 02:47:21 +0100

I visited the SOCIETY FOR CARIBBEAN STUDIES Web page and found out that we
are working in related fields of study.

Therefore, I am pleased to invite all members of the SOCIETY FOR CARIBBEAN
STUDIES to participate in the creation of an interactive CD-ROM to be
published in conjunction with our exhibition project "el otro lado del
alma".

Thirteen contemporary Cuban artists with a total of more than 80 works will
be shown at La Fototeca de Cuba, Havana<RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK>s
National Museum of Photography, in "el otro lado del alma: Afrocuban
Religions in Contemporary Photography", opening to the public on February
11th, 2003.
This is the first photo exhibition on the religious theme in Revolutionary
Cuba. It was organized by the young Austrian curator and documentary film
maker, Moritz Neumueller, together with Fototeca chief curator, Nelson
R. de Arellano.

The participating artists are: Pedro Abascal, Juan Carlos Alóm, Jorge Luis
Álvarez Pupo, Raúl Cañibano, Elio Delgado, Ricardo Elías, Kattia García,
Liudmila y Nelson, Humberto Mayol, Ramón Pacheco, René Peña, Marta María
Pérez Bravo, and Sandra Ramos, all from Cuba.

The interactive, multilingual CD-ROM shall include all the shown works, as
well as a rich archive of texts on the role of Afrocuban religions in
Cuban politics, society, art and Cuban national identity. The design of
the CD-ROM will correspond with our exhibition Web page www.afrocuban.org.

So far, we have accepted proposals by Natalia Bolivar, Eugenio Valdés
Figueroa, María Iliana Faguaga Iglesias, G. Ugo Nwokeji, Nelson R. de
Arellano and Moritz Neumueller.

Please send your submission electronically in the formats HTML or MS WORD,
images as JPG or GIF. Papers are accepted in any language, but should come
with an English summary. We encourage bilingual authors to submit their
papers in a full Spanish and a full English version. Authors of accepted
papers will receive two free CD-ROMs and a 50% discount on the catalog.

Please send your contributions as soon as possible to
Moritz Neumueller, PhD.
[log in to unmask]

Weissgerberlaende 58/2/21
A-1030 Vienna, Austria
Phone: +43-1-9660544
Mobile: +43-676-75 11 949
Fax: +43-1-7145673

DEADLINE IS JANUARY 20th, 2003.

PLEASE SEND THIS CALL FOR PAPERS TO ANYBODY YOU CONSIDER INTERESTED IN
THIS AREA OF RESEARCH!


Maferefún and best wishes,





Moritz Neumueller, PhD
Independent Curator

###

Further information:
El otro lado del alma, translated as <LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK>the other
side of the soul<RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK> will
present, for the first time in Cuba, contemporary Cuban photography and
video art which reflects the Afrocuban Religions.

 <LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK>While Cuban art must not be viewed apart from
the international
 movements
it interacts with, its Afro-Cuban heritage, especially the role of
Santería Aesthetics has been prominently discussed in theory and practised
in installations, performance art, painting and sculpture. In photography
and video art, however, this rich pattern of influences is somewhat harder
to grasp, as a technical device has to intermediate in the dialogue
between the imagery and its creator<RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK>, says the
curator of the exhibition,
Moritz Neumüller from Vienna, Austria.

Nelson R. de Arellanos, Chief Curator of the Fototeca de Cuba, explains:
<LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK>For political and historic reasons, that part of
Cuban photographic
production unrelated to the social reality of the Revolution did not find
any interest for many years<RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK>. Firstly,
documentary religious photography
was not promoted by the art institutions, therefore lacking greater public
echo. Secondly, the formal aperture of Cuban photography towards more
<LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK>conceptual<RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK>
tendencies did not happen before the 80s, only then allowing
the development new approaches to the religious theme.

There is a broad spectrum of how contemporary Cuban photographers work
with the religious subject matter. At a quick glance, one might say that
the one end of that spectrum is defined by photographic reportage-style
works of those artists who document religious ceremonies and processions,
while the other is marked by those photographers who inscribe the symbols
of a genuinely Afrocuban language into still-lives and on their own bodies
in order to produce polysemous sign systems, or those who choose a more
conceptual approach to transculturation.

However, this simplistic view ignores the individual artists<RIGHT SINGLE
QUOTATION MARK> profound
interpretation of the collective spiritual memory of a nation that has
been called <LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK>Latin-African<RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION
MARK> by its supreme leader. Historic references,
such as José Agraz Solans<RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK> famous series that
soon became known as
<LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK>Mesajero de Ochún<RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK>
(Messenger of Oshun), and Ana Mendieta<RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK>s <LATIN
SMALL LIGATURE OE>uvre prove
the complex interference between Cuban photography and the religious
subject matter.

The curator, Moritz Neumueller, concludes that <LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION
MARK>the fantastic iconography
of the Afrocuban religions and their relation to the richly facetted Cuban
photographic tradition invite a careful look at these young artists from
Cuba in order to uncover new insights into el otro lado del alma, the
other side of the soul<RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK>.

This exhibition will also be accompanied by an original 20 min.
documentary on Afrocuban spirituality produced by the curator and his
team. A multilingual, 40 page printed catalog, including texts by Natalia
Bolívar (one of Cuba's most important anthropologists) and an essay by the
Cuban art critic Eugenio Valdés Figueroa, will be published for the
touring in Europe, Latin America and the US until the end of 2005.



Moritz Neumueller, PhD.
Weissgerberlaende 58/2/21
A-1030 Vienna, Austria
Email: [log in to unmask]
Phone: +43-1-9660544
Mobile: +43-676-75 11 949
Fax: +43-1-7145673


Moritz Neumueller, PhD.
Weissgerberlaende 58/2/21
A-1030 Vienna, Austria
Email: [log in to unmask]
Phone: +43-1-9660544
Mobile: +43-676-75 11 949
Fax: +43-1-7145673



--- End Forwarded Message ---


Dr S.E.Courtman
School of Humanities
P.O.Box 661
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Staffordshire  ST4 2XW
Tele. +44 (0)1782 294666
Fax.  +44 (0)1782 294760
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