Cuban Ingenuity: The Artistry of the Everyday Inventor

Event Start Date: March 10, 2019 1:00 PM
Event End Date: March 10, 2019 3:00 PM

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Cuban Ingenuity: The Artistry of the Everyday Inventor

March 10 | 1:00 pm
Cade Museum

The cornerstone of Bulla Cubana 2019 is an exhibition entitled Cuban Ingenuity – The Artistry of Everyday Inventors.

The exhibit opens at Gainesville’s new Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention on March 10. Through videos, photographs, and objects collected for the Cade throughout Cuba, Cuban Ingenuity highlights the ingenious vision behind dozens of innovations and inventions of necessity. Manufactured products of the mid-2oth century, from US automobiles to Soviet-made washing machines, have been repaired and amended, repurposed and redesigned over nearly three generations of Cubans. Objects pieced together for functionality have nonetheless achieved an artistic elegance worthy of this exhibition and appreciation.

Organized by the Cade Museum and led by Havana-born artists and curators Gabriela Azcuy and Jorge Lavoy, with creation and guidance provided by Anne Gilroy, curator of exhibitions at Gainesville’s Thomas Center Galleries, Cuban Ingenuity explores repurposed objects ranging from the ingenious to the outrageous, demonstrating functional solutions to creative achievements. 

Through first-hand collection and curation, the exhibit reflects the passionate stories of Cuban residents and their ability to adapt materials to manage harsh economic conditions and Cuba’s severe political landscape, from transportation to systems, without access to modern technologies.