Instituto de Invierno (The Winter Institute)

January 3 to February 28, 2015
San Agustín, La Lisa (Havana, Cuba)
A 2-month workshop and lecture series culminating in a series of public performances

Participants: Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara (artist in residence LASA/Elegoa), Reynier Guerra (literature student, in residence LASA/Elegoa), Alexis Povea Dreke (artist), Ivette Sáez Quintero (architect), Ulises Padrón Suárez (literature student and collaborator at CENESEX [Centro Nacional de Educación Sexua]), Dayron Calvet (audiovisual professional), Jessie Ramírez (history teacher) and Esperanza Nuñez Guerrero (actress)

Curator: Catherine Sicot

Workshop and final performance artistic director: José Alexander Morales Carvajal (artist – Colombia/ Cuba)

Lecture series programmers: Reynier Guerra, Ulises Padrón and José Alexander Morales Carvajal

Production: Elegoa Cultural Productions in collaboration with LASA (Laboratorio Artistico de San Agustín, Cuba) and Sin Diploma. The Comitado Internazionale per lo sviluppo dei popoli and with the financial support of the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives. 

Project Overview:
El Instituto de Invierno was an artistic laboratory for exploring cultural diversity and gender and sexual identity in the suburban neighborhood of San Agustín (Havana, Cuba). This investigation aimed to develop a dialogue between artists, San Agustín residents, specialists, governmental institutions, and the public. El Instituto de Invierno included a 7-week workshop, a lectures series and a final performance event that spanned public and private spaces in San Agustín.

Workshop:
Drawing on everyday life in San Agustín and discussions of neighbourhood politics, participants sought to experience subjectivity and to reveal the socio-human poetics of diversity. The group gathered twice a week and each member developed an artistic proposition for the final event of the project.

Lecture series:
A series of thought-provoking theoretical and practical lectures and panels was programmed in various spaces in the neighborhood. San Agustín residents were invited to attend, joining workshop participants.

February 9, 2015
Memoria y percepcíon: dilucidaciones y desplazamientos de la diversidad cultural cubana desde el inicio de la Revolución hasta el periodo especial. (Memory and perception: elucidations and shifts in Cuban cultural diversity from the beginning of the Revolution to the Special Period)
Guest speakers: Tomás Fernández Robaina (essayist), Griselda Hernández (anthropologist, ISA)

February 13, 2015
Diversidad, antropología del cuerpo e identidad sexual en la actualidad de Cuba. (Diversity, anthropology of the body and sexual identity in Cuba today)
Guest speaker: Lídice Garrido Arredondo (psycho-pedagogue, ENA)

February 19, 2015
Taller del Centro de Investigaciones Psicológicas y Sociológicas (CIPS). (Workshop of the Center of Psychological and Sociological Investigations)
Psychologist/sociologist guest speakers: Yenisei Bombino, Denisse Delgado, Succel Pardini, Wilfredo Pomares, Kenia Lorenzo

February 20, 2015
Micropoliticas, micropoeticas. Obra de arte y sexualidad – pretextos. (Micropolitics, micropoetics. Work of art and sexuality – pretexts)
Guest speakers: Norge Espinosa (writer), Glenda Ferbeyre (literature student), Luis Ernesto Doña (director)

February 20, 2015
Diversidad, antropología del cuerpo e identidad sexual en la actualidad de Cuba. (Diversity, anthropology of the body and sexual identity in Cuba today)
Guest speaker: Alberto Roque (doctor)


 Final event (February 28, 2015) :
Atardecer nocturno y diverso (Diverse and nocturnal evening) directed by José Alexander Morales Carvajal 
Evening of actions, traces, prints, gestures, specific actions, ephemeral and unrepeatable. (see program below)
An evening of performances concluded the Instituto de Invierno. Presented as a wedding celebration (but with no newlyweds), the event saw participants wander the streets of San Agustín, moving from public spaces to domestic and institutional places. This unprecedented night of creation combined music, film, dance, body painting and performance.

View the film/documentary Instituto de Invierno on Vimeo. Artistic Direction: Alexander Morales Carvajal, Editing, Luz Esmerida Morales, Production: Elegoa Cultural Productions / LASA/ Arawak.

Final event program:

1. Lucerito (presenter) - Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara (artist in residence, incubator project)

2. Cine club cine diverso - Reynier Guerra
La Trucha (short film) duration 20 min.
Film of the Cuban director: Luis Ernesto Dueñas
Interventions: Break-dancing and body painting

3. Cuerpo – Verso - Alexis Povea Dreke
Gesture – movement

4. Humano - Dayron Calvet
Video installation

5. Sin título - Jessie Amanda Ramírez
Face – action

6. Transposición - Ulises Padrón
Poetry

7. Corpografía - Ivette Faez
Gesture-installation - Staging collaboration Candelario

8. Orchis- Esperanza Núñez Guerrero
Ornamental cabaret

9. Ella - Diana Cano
Dance – fiction
Ornamental cabaret

10. La primavera del amor - Concierto/ Cabaret ornamental

Biographies participants in residence Incubador LASA/Elegoa:

The Instituto de Invierno was design in relation to the programme of 2 young Cuban artists and professionals participating in the residence Incubador. The focus was on exploring art practices that respond to a territory, its geography, social, economic. The programme run from January to June 2015 between San Agustin and Havana. The programme included different form of mentoring and encounterns with senior cuban and international artists,  the participation to the Instituto de Invierno, and de development of a project to be presented in La Primavera del amor, in conjunction with the 12th Bienial de La Habana. 

Artist in residence: Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara
Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara is an autodidact multimedia artist interested in working with aesthetic, ethical, and social phenomena in relationship to gender and individual rights. He works mostly with the extremes, both contradictory and complementary, connected and disconnected, in an attempt do determine whether or not a point of equilibrium can be reached. Research during the residency: art/gestures exploring sexual diversity. Project developed for La Primavera del amor: Miss Bienal (Welcome to Yumas)

Curatorial assistant in residence: Reynier Guerra
Reynier Guerra is a literature student at the University of Havana who writes reviews for the Festival Internacional del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano de La Habana. Education and community are at the heart of his concerns. Research and project: curatorial practices engaging communities. Project: assumed the position of Curatorial Assistant, La Primavera del amor.

Mentor: José Alexander Morales Carvajal
Alexander Morales is a Colombian multidisciplinary artist who collaborated in Bogota with the experimental theatre groups Mapa Teatro and Teatro Varasanta, as well as with contemporary dance troupe El Colegio del Cuerpo — all dealing with Colombian social and political themes.
An alumni of El Teatro Libre de Bogota and Paris 3 and Paris 8 universities, Alexander Morales is now exploring artistic interbreeding and micropolitics in the Caribbean region.
He co-funded Sin Diploma, a Cuban collective of both non-professional and professional artists.