Identidades y Fronteras en Iberoamérica

Sandra Rocha. Untitled, 2006 From the series Retrato de mujer. Courtesy Centro Cultural Español (CCE).

Freedom Tower - Downtown Miami

February 5 - March 7, 2009

By Janet Batet

We live in a vortex, trapped between the ridiculous and odd geographical border concept -derived from the modern notion of nation- and the globalization era. We try day after day to rearrange our identities and desires. That is the spirit behind “Identidades y Fronteras en Iberoamérica” (Borders and Identities in Ibero-America) hosted at the Freedom Tower, the downtown Miami landmark building inextricably linked to immigration in South Florida.

The exhibition is comprised of more than 150 works from 35 artists from Spain, Portugal and Latin America, responding to a curatorial zeal that guides us into a vast and polysemic world.

The show is part of the colossal project, “Laberinto de Miradas” (A Labyrinth of Views), organized by Casa América Catalunya and La Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo (AECID), which consists of three traveling photo and video exhibitions: “Identidades y Fronteras en Iberoamérica” (Borders and Identities in Ibero-America), “Fricciones y conflictos en Iberoamérica” (Friction and Conflict in Ibero-America) and “Colectivos fotográficos en Iberoamérica” (Photographic Associations in Ibero-America). The Project, curated by Claudi Carreras, will be traveling to more than twenty countries throughout America and Europe, all of it ending up in Barcelona on December 2010.

The exhibition features relevant works by artists, such as, Sergi Cámara, Elsa Medina, Ale Lipsxye, Federico Gama, Jo Expósito, Katya Braylovzky, Vicente Paredes Gil, Jordi Burch, Martha Soul, Ricardo Teles, Sandra Rocha, among others.

Through the lens of a camera, “Laberinto de Miradas” explores contemporary issues such as identity, culture crossing, minority rights, and the endless journey of the immigrant. Celebrating this area’s long documentary tradition, the project is an impressive inventory of documentary photography and video in Ibero-America.

Janet Batet: Independent curator and art critic. BA in Art History (University of Havana, Cuba); MA in Multimedia (University of Quebec, Montreal)