BOOK NKAME WINS SECOND PRIZE FOR THE BEST BOOKS PUBLISHED IN SPAIN IN 2010 October 11, 2010 Ministry of Culture of Spain © http://www.europapress.es The Ministry of Culture of Spain has granted the Awards for the Best Edited Books in 2010. These awards do not have an economic endowment but are highly valued by publishers for the recognition and prestige given to their editorial work, as well as for the dissemination that it entails, being included in the book promotion actions and exhibited at the main national and international fairs. The awarded categories include: Art, Bibliophilia, Facsimiles, Children and Youth, General and Outreach Works The jury has evaluated 318 works in total, included in five thematic groups. These are the awarded works: Art books First prize: The toys of the avant-garde, by VV.AA., published by the Fundación Museo Picasso Málaga y Legado Paul Christine and Bernard Ruiz-Picasso; Produced by Ediciones El Viso. Second prize: Nkame. Belkis Ayón, from VV.AA., edited by Turner Publicaciones, SL Third prize: Miguel Hernández. 25 illustrated poems, poems by Miguel Hernández, illustrations by various authors, edited by Kalandraka Ediciones Andalucía. The Jury has been chaired by Mónica Fernández, Deputy Director General for the Promotion of Spanish Books, Reading and Literature. They have acted as members Teresa Mezquita for the National Library of Spain, Andrés Fernández for the Federation of Publishers Guilds of Spain, Manuel Vacas for the Business Federation of Graphic Industries of Spain, Augusto Jurado for the Emeritus Graphics Club, Natividad Correas and Rocío San Claudio at the proposal of the general director of the Spanish Book, Reading and Literature and Marta Sáenz Bascones, an expert official of the Ministry of Culture. PREVIOUS NEWS NEXT NEWS

CONFLUENCES INSIDE Havana, Mexico, United States, Portugal November 2006 - 2010 ​ Cubarte Newsletter Year 7 Number 25, June 20, 2007 Exhibition "Confluencias" is presented in Mexico By: Nelson Herrera Ysla The exhibition "Confluencias", with works by 26 Cuban artists of various generations, has been inaugurated at the Museum of Modern Art of Toluca, of the Mexiquense Institute of Culture, after their presentations at the Clavijero Palace of the City of Morelia (where the idea for the project arose thanks to the enthusiasm of the Constitutional Governor of the State of Michoacán, Mr. Lázaro Cárdenas Batel) and at the José Luis Cuevas Museum in the Federal District. The exhibition, curated by Juan Delgado, had the advice of Elvia Rosa Castro, and an excellent catalog designed by the Cuban team Baus Diseño, printed in large format in Mexico. It brings together more than 70 works, mainly in painting as well as drawing, printmaking, photography, sculpture and video by some of the most notable Cuban artists, from Alfredo Sosabravo and Manuel Mendive to Alain Pino, the youngest. Participating in it: Roberto Fabelo , Nelson Domínguez , Arturo Montoto, Belkis Ayón, Eduardo Roca , Ernesto Rancaño, Flora Fong, José A. Toirac, Lester Campa, Los Carpinteros, Luis Gómez, Pedro Pablo Oliva , Rigoberto Mena, Roberto Diago, Rubén Rodríguez, Santiago Rodríguez Olazábal, Zaida del Río , Carlos Quintana, Aymée García, Carlos Montes de Oca, Eduardo Ponjuán, Alexis Leyva (Kcho), Agustín Bejarano. Unfolded in over 400 square meters, the exhibition offers a synthetic panorama of recent productions of Cuban visuality where the two dimensions stand out from the rest, and in which it is possible to appreciate the strength of painting in our country, a phenomenon that today begins to gain notoriety in events and fairs around the world. ​ The large format of the works and the balance between various modes of expression contribute to their interest in the artistic and communication media as well as in the Mexican public: these allow us to reflect on Cuban visual arts and inform about our culture of the image in constant process of expansion. The inauguration was attended by Mr. Agustín Gasca Pliego, General Director of IMexC, Lic. Vivian Martínez Tabares, Cultural Counselor of the Cuban Embassy in that country, Laura Castañedo, Artistic Secretary of Ars Latina 2007 and Cuban artists invited to participate in this project that will take place during the month of June in Baja California. Also present were the curator of the exhibition Juan Delgado, the art critic Nelson Herrera Ysla and the artist Arturo Montoto. So much interest has aroused "Confluencias", whose original project was limited only to the city of Morelia, and today their presentations in the states of Tabasco and Guanajuato for this year 2007 are in the process of being coordinated. Source: CUBARTE ​ Participating artists: Agustín Bejarano, Aimée García, Alain Pino, Alexis Leyva (KCHO), Alfredo Sosabravo, Arturo Montoto, Belkis Ayón, Carlos Montes de Oca, Carlos Quintana, Eduardo Ponjuán, Eduardo Roca (CHOCO), Ernesto Rancaño, Flora Fong, José A, Toirac, Lester Campa, Los Carpinteros, Luis Gómez, Manuel Mendive, Nelson Domínguez, Pedro Pablo Oliva, Rigoberto Mena, Roberto Diago, Roberto Fabelo, Rubén Rodríguez, Santiago Rodríguez Olazábal, Zaida del Río.

THE CALLALOO ART & CULTURE IN THE AFRICAN DIASPORA MAGAZINE, ILLUSTRATED ITS COVER WITH THE PIECE LA CENA, 1988 BY BELKIS AYÓN January 26, 2015 Yadira Leyva Ayón © Callaloo Art & Culture in the African Diaspora Magazine Issue 4 of the Callaloo Art & Culture in the African Diaspora Magazine illustrated its cover with the piece La Cena de 1988 by Belkis Ayón, of which we can find a dossier with more of her works and specific aspects of her artistic life. With interviews, historical articles, reviews, and dossiers of visual artists, the publication presents different aspects of the culture generated by the African diaspora in the American world. PREVIOUS NEWS NEXT NEWS

Belkis Ayón. The preamble to an infinite journey to earth. ​ ​ Norberto Marrero December 1, 1999 © Extramuros, 1, December 1999, pp. 25-26 ​ ​ For us, weary of the tumult and bad nights, reaching Alamar (land of promise) meant, among other things, being able to verify that there was still a full place, devoid of hatred and betrayal; a castle where we could exercise ourselves in the greatest and clearest spiritual tranquility. Then Belkis would appear with her enormous eyes of an Egyptian goddess, she ushered us in, and no one dared to let go of her spirit anymore, and we would be left hanging comfortably by her smile, her contagious optimism. I see Belkis as that mysteriously invulnerable woman, ready to offer us the best spaghetti in Havana and the clearest beer, capable of satiating the appetite, thirst and fatigue of the most demanding traveler; I see her there with her kind and enthusiastic face, giving each of us a torrent of affection and vitality. When I met her in San Alejandro, I was just another student in the evening course with an avid interest in printmaking. She was already the artist that everyone admired, a teacher of two groups of students in the day course, quite numerous. With somewhat excessive persistence, in which I silently slipped away among her disciples and patiently waited for each moment of respite to ask her any technical or conceptual concerns, to which she responded without the slightest qualm, without the slightest suspicion. At the end of my four years of studies we had become very good friends, and by chance, almost always unpredictable, she ended up being the opponent of my thesis. I remember her as one of those essential teachers, very concerned for her students from San Alejandro, to whom she gave all her knowledge about engraving, including very expensive materials that she managed to buy on her travels, or others that were donated to her by foreign friends; catalogs and all kinds of information that he managed to collect. For a long time the Chair of Engraving of Saint Alexander survived thanks to his unrelenting interest. She was the irreplaceable friend, and I can't stop thinking about her eyes, with her always encouraging words. For Cuban culture, an impeccable work will remain, overflowing with perfection and constancy, of exquisite elegance. A path opened by someone who dedicated a large part of his days to promoting Cuban engraving in a special way, with unquestionable seriousness and professionalism. For Cuban culture, it is the gross and useless loss of an artist who with her scarce thirty-two years managed to climb the highest levels of national and international culture in the plastic arts, with an astonishingly mature work, of great originality and spiritual depth. . For those of us who loved her, for those of us who were by her side, something more intimate, more imperishable, will remain. We will be left with his goodness, his disinterested way of giving himself, his concern for everything that meant the well-being of his family and his friends, which was the same; his desire to always achieve a fair and happy future for artists and friends. I remember now when he received one of the prizes from the Puerto Rico Engraving Biennial, one of the most important graphic arts events on the continent. It was a moderately happy surprise for her; I could assure you that he received it with a certain amount of modesty. However, I very well remember her inordinate joy and pride when Abel (1) visited La Huella Múltiple, and with her he toured each of the exhibition halls, which he had appreciated in their exceptional quality. I looked at his eyes and could perceive endless wonderful thoughts, plans for engraving, opportunities never latent before as up to that moment, and then we remembered all the difficulties to carry out the event, the early mornings of work at the UNEAC putting together the catalogs, the money that was not enough and that much of it came from his pocket; the difficulty of assembling many of the pieces, the fatigue, the sleep, and although we always had the conviction that La Huella ... would cost us a lot, now, while we talked about Abel and all that, we knew deep inside that the effort would not it had been in vain. Her work as Vice President of Plastic Arts at UNEAC, for many of the engraving artists who knew her, was a saving dream; there was someone who gave engraving its true importance, such a laborious technique and so much tradition in Cuban culture. Belkis was not only a very responsible artist, but also was absolutely affordable for any artist, not only for the most important, but also, since they paid special attention, to those less known, less "privileged". He had a special agglutinating capacity, thanks to which he carried out any event, counting not only on the engravers, but also on the sculptors, the photographers ... To all this he gave himself with absolute devotion, leaving aside, even, his own work of creation. Today, while making the same trip that I did so many times, I think about the time that Eliseo left us (2), and I cannot conceive of including Belkis in that immaterial, insubstantial time; I try to understand their essences, their latitudes, and I cannot manage their body and spirit through those labyrinths. For some it is the unspoken and irreversible end. For others it is one of her many trips, one of which inexplicably sometimes she returned very depressed, even having done very well professionally. For me it is neither one nor the other. I still know that he will be there, in his castle (and ours), waiting for the first traveler, thirsty, spreading his arms. I know this is absolutely true and I don't want to be fooled. We share too many joys, too many sorrows, too many truths, and although for all this means a selfish and terribly devastating loss, we will try to be calm. I wonder about the things that we did not say to each other, because of how dark no one perceived, about the things that we did not understand, and then I think: ​ How else would I see suicide, if not as a prelude of a fervent banquet, and tell each other why it would be worth very little to strip ourselves of our sardonic sorcery as if all our anguish ended there, where the water runs transparent and the salt shines like gold vomited by a goat. How else would we see emptiness. One and the other are voracious objects that our exhausted youth possesses, relic of a knowledge that is spent so inevitably like our children. Love accompanies bodies when they die. A fine line divides the stones and desire. Patience. Before the yew tree, patience. After the desserts, a slow and infinite patience. Then I arrive at the door of that wonderful castle. When it opens the door she appears, says "hello", and her huge eyes pull me, Apprehending me for all eternity ​ (1) - Abel Prieto, Minister of Culture of the Republic of Cuba. (N. of the publisher) (2) - It refers to the Cuban poet Eliseo Diego and his poem "Testament", where he bequeaths to future generations "the time, all the time." (N. of the publisher) ​ PREVIOUS article next article

Sikán’s image is paramount in all these works because like myself, she led and leads –through me- , a disquieting life, looking insistently for a way out ​ Belkis Ayón, January, 1998 Belkis Ayón Manso (1967-1999) Printmaker, drawer , curator, teacher The Artist Havana, January 23, 1967 - September 11, 1999 ​ ​ STUDIES ​ • 1979-1982 Elementary School of Plastic Arts "20 de Octubre", Havana. • 1982-1986 San Alejandro Academy, Havana. Printmaking teachers: Pablo Borges, Carlos A. García and Ángel Ramírez. • 1986-1991 Bachelor of Art in Printmaking, Art Superior Institute (ISA), Havana. Printmaking teachers: Luis Cabrera, Luis Lara, Rolando Rojas and Pablo Borges. ​ ​ ARTIST'S RESIDENCES ​ • 1999 Brandywine Workshop, Center for the Visual Arts Cuba Project, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. • 1999 The Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. • 1999 Bronski Center, Philadelphia College of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. • 1999 Bensen Hall Gallery, Rhode Island School of Design, Rhode Island, United States. MAIN COLLECTIONS pe rsonal exhibitions collective exhibitions

TOWERS AND TOMBS Estudio Figueroa-Vives / Norwegian Embassy, ​​El Vedado, Havana, Cuba ​ September - November, 2019 On September 11, 2019, the exhibition Towers and Tombs in homage to the 20th Anniversary of the death of Belkis Ayón (1967-1999) were inaugurated at the Figueroa-Vives Studio / Norwegian Embassy. Also dedicated to her sister, Dr. Katia Ayón (1964-2019) who worked tirelessly and successfully in the promotion and conservation of her sister's artistic legacy through the Belkis Ayón Estate. The exhibition presents "an unsuspected parallel between historical moments, lives and aesthetics", which come together on the date of 09/11, unveiling through works and matrices of the outstanding Cuban printmaker alongside the photographic work of Janis Lewin (USA) and José A. Figueroa (Cuba). ​ Press coverage https://rialta.org/el-11-de-seipt-de-belkis-ayon-por-el-estudio-figueroa-vives/ ​

PROPOSAL AT AGE 20 ​ Belkis Ayón and Isary Paulet ​ Servando Cabrera Moreno Art Gallery December, 1988 PIECE FOR FLUTE AND CLARINET We are simply between two worlds, where fantasy, where THE FABULOUS, have the floor. If for a moment we put aside the virtuosity of the printmaker, which are everywhere here, and evade a certain illustrative character, not because these things are despicable, but because she wanted to bring them to the center of her expression, then we would have to face a message directly poetic, based on harmony, on a lyricism that plays with reasons and beautician desires, which make a delicate piece for flute and clarinet from the vision of reality. Everything unfolds like the scenery of a story: in Isary, the characters, like crazy pixies, are distributed following the whims of the kaleidoscope, playing, I believe, the role of the only saviors of a world that increasingly needs and wishes the arrival of some representative of the magical world capable of transforming it into something else. Spielberg? Neo-infantilism? Like Isary, Belkis works with mystery in her work, drawn from such perfect configurations, of colors so peacefully pleasing, that they arouse unease. But suddenly one has the feeling that we are only facing an idealization, too much tenderness, almost in a peaceful reverie, in that unreal film that cannot continue, that cannot be, that one more moment and explodes. It may be that neither of the two interpretations is exact, it does not matter, they are only the style that fits for these expressive centers, surrounded by the deployment of an arsenal of irreproachable techniques and invoices. Because some could stay there, in the resplendent quality of the finish of their products. That finish is nothing more than the superficial of the art of these charming. The elements are well managed by the magician to integrate them into the illusion. Then the feeling is presented in the force of a very own saying in each case that in Isary and Belkis, in their proposals, they have the presentation of a meticulous structure, many times thought and calculated, destined to transmit security or very security purified that it becomes practically brittle. Aldo Menendez ​ (Text for the exhibition catalog)

Talk about the myths of art. Interview with Belkis Ayón ​ Jaime Sarusky February 4, 1999 © Revolución y Cultura, No 2-3 / 99, p. 68-71 ​ To tell the truth, it was not easy to interview Belkis Ayón, despite appearances, that is, his youth, the recognition that his artistic work has had, his personality, that one would bet very accessible, frank and open as his laugh. But do not confuse such attributes with the vehemence, I would say even the passion, of the creator Belkis Ayón, the one who with steely lucidity knows the paths of yesterday and today of her work. And I'm sure tomorrow too. But his humility and pride, traits that coexist in many authentic artists, prevent him from sanctioning such a prognosis. Although in his heart every great artist knows that it is, the challenge to time is raised and time, in turn, challenges it. Time, for better or for worse, can do everything, except with the great art that resists it, transcends it and walks by its side with an ironic smile. We are in front of his mural La Cena that is in the Ludwig Foundation. It is a tenaciously mysterious piece. I would not hesitate to say that it has many readings. But tell me your story ​ La Cena was first seen in public in 1988 at the Servando Cabrera de Playa gallery. I conceived it to print in color but once it was printed and displayed I was not satisfied with the results. So I dedicated myself to preparing it for my graduate thesis and in 1991 I modified it and took it to black and white. The first figure, top left, has his face covered with his hands. The main idea is from Dinner ... ​ Are you referring to the traditional dinner? Yes, but as a main idea. And I had in mind for a long time. Dinner is for women, except for two men, one who is on the right, the black figure who is completely indifferent, as if he is going to leave the composition, and another who has a black face. What are the elements of mythology present there? One of them is the background. It is made with the Anaforuanas or “signatures”: the cross, the circle and the cross within the circle, symbolism of the different branches that influenced or where the myth arose as such this type of societies, efik, efor and ori bibi. The + sign corresponds to efik, the O efor and oru-bibi. Another element that I use is the scale. The fish's scale, the sacred fish. And also the type of symbology that I have taken to mean the man with the leopard skin, which is a concentric circle, a little elongated with various points around it. And, in addition, figures that have a design that suggests a relationship with femininity. ​ ​ And the bandage? When someone who is in the process of being initiated is going to enter the sacred room, the Fambá, before entering it, they are blindfolded. It's like a kind of ceremonial dinner. There is a figure that is starting or about to start. What is celebrated with this ritual? In this case it is something that perhaps existed. But it is not something that happens. From the point of view of the religious ceremony there is a part that is food, but it has nothing to do with this idea of ​​dinner. This is totally symbolic. ​ Another figure has a snake around his neck. In Abakuá mythology, it is the animal sent by the tribe's sorcerer to find out what had happened in the river when the Tanze fish disappeared. Then the Nasakó sends two snakes to see what has happened. And on the way back they appear to him and surprise Sikán, who gets scared and drops the güiro that he was carrying on his head. That is why the snake is always a company for her. It can be threatening, it can be preventive, or it can simply be companionship. And depending on the idea I also use it as a phallic element. Now why the scales and the significance of the fish? The fish was the way, the vehicle that contained the secret, that is, it was the being that contained the secret. The secret was a voice. Here it is no longer fish on that plate. No, not anymore, because this figure, that of the man with the black head, kind of broke into the women's dinner and ingested the fish. His plate is already empty, as is the gourd that accompanies each of the figures next to the plate. The fish is the sacred being. In this women's dinner, two figures wear the skin of the fish, thus relating the fate of the fish with the fate that Sikán will have or had. It is assumed that among the Abakuá women do not play any role, they are out of that world. Anyone could think that his is a daring because he is transgressing what is taboo. It is out from the point of view of professing religion. But it is inside, deep inside, because it was a woman who discovered the secret. And from that discovery is that, somehow, all this kind of story arises. What was the secret? The secret was the voice. According to the myth, appropriating that fish that contained the voice meant that whoever reached it would be the richest and most prosperous tribe. It was power. In reality the fish was the reincarnation of an old king who predicted such events. The guilt of the woman when she discovered the secret eliminated her from the rituals of the Abakuá universe. Yes, and I also think that, like all these stories of myths and legends, there are different versions. One of them maintains that the woman is excluded for having given information to the enemy tribe. But I think that it is not necessary for a viewer to have knowledge of the myths, the Abakuá ritual or the meanings of each of its components to admire or be impressed by his work. ​ The thing would be to know why it impresses ... What does that engraving have? First of all, the mystery. These apparently passive characters convey an atmosphere of tension, of suspicion. Strange diners who are also symbols. There is a sense of uncertainty due to the weight of the allegorical. It would seem that they challenge us, by the very scene presented by these disconcerting protagonists, to go back to the mists of the early days. There they are, simultaneously, the myth and the complex human matter; they transcend time and if by chance I saw that work years ago and I see it again now, I still think that it comes to me as something telluric, unfathomable. I think about these things at the moment when I am doing them. After I print them and it has been so long, like it is no longer mine and I stop thinking about it. Now I was thinking about tension, as something that is contained, where something happened or is going to happen. Something like that. And the eyes on your characters? Actually the eyes in my work is what impresses people, what intrigues them because they are eyes that look at you very directly, so I think you cannot hide, wherever you move they are always there looking at you, they are there making you an accomplice of what you are seeing. And, above all, in these pieces that are large, you are almost at the same level, at the same size, it is someone with whom you are living there in some way. The fact of being characters that do not have a defined face is helping to feed the myth and the symbol. There is no detail that places them in a historical context: they have no clothes or hairstyle. From those clothes or from that hairstyle it could be deduced that they are characters of this or more than that moment. When you conceive these characters — let's call them somehow — you are not thinking of an anecdote, at a certain moment, but you are simply thinking of an episode of the Abakuá universe that you want to represent ... Yes, I think it is the latter to which you refer and also a little more, there is always something else. I really enjoy the fact of working, of filling the characters with something, that is, through the textures, the shapes, not being devoid of clothes. Clothes are the skin that I put on depending on what is happening, on what I want to say. For example, the scales. As I had told you before, it is the skin of a fish and for many people it can also be the skin of a snake. I mean, there is all that ambiguity. Now, how did he enter, how could he appropriate the knowledge of the Abakuá world? It was out of curiosity, to face something that one reads, talks about or sees for the first time. It is not what one is used to and feels that it attracts them and begins to investigate, to seek information. And his father? It is not Abakuá. And in my family no one is, except a cousin. It is important that I say so because stories have been made up that all the men in my family are Abakuá. Not at all. We are two sisters, nothing more. For what reason does it reach you with such force that it becomes the subject, the subject of your artistic work? That interest arose when I was studying engraving at San Alejandro. There were so many things that attracted me to Afro-Cuban cultures; my taste for going to rumba Saturdays and when the National Folk Ensemble had its seasons at the Mella Theater. Also the magazine The UNESCO Courier. At school I was very interested in the numbers that had to do with African culture. In my grandmother's house there was a poster with some items announcing the performances given by Folklorico and Sara Gómez's film, In a certain way. It could also have been the fact that my uncle had among his books, that he could see and leaf through all the time, Los Ñáñigos, by Enrique Sosa, or some suggestions that my teachers from San Alejandro made to me to read The Abakuá Secret Society narrated by its old followers, by Lydia Cabrera, or The African Diaspora, and a bit of all that. Or a catalog that my father gave me from a retrospective they made in Paris of Lam's painting. These things I simplify. I discovered that there were no artists working on this theme at that time, but others such as Santeria, voodoo, spiritism and palo monte. The reading of different stories of the myth also influenced. It seemed so plastic to me, as if it were passing in front of me, where faces appeared and disappeared. Also, there is no figurative iconography, except, of course, the signatures. Then I saw that there was a possibility, there was a whole world that I could perfectly create, from the fact that you already know what stories are like. How do you explain that those characters without faces have such intensity, such density? There are things in the works that one cannot explain oneself. The tension ... I did not think of it, it was not something preconceived. He left. I say that something always accompanies me that is like a good sign, a good company: intuition. Perhaps my work is that: they are things that I have inside and that I throw out because they are burdens that cannot be lived with and cannot be dragged. Could it be said that you detach yourself, in the same creative process, from many of these myths? I detach myself; and not because I think that always, even if I want to say something else, I am using the same symbology and the same figuration and the same signs that I use when I want to refer specifically to a scene or a detail that is, strictly, from mythology, although later, perhaps, he will turn it over and want to say something else. But they are fixed elements in my work. Right now I'm using more personal things; however, I continue to use the character of Sikán, the fish, the goat, the scales, the snake, I continue to use crumpled papers and the symbols that I have always used in another situation, but with other content. I use colography because it seems to me the most appropriate technique to say what I want. That is first. In addition, it is the technique with which I can work large formats, whatever I want, and I like the manufacturing of the piece, it fascinates me. So all that process I enjoy tremendously. It is one of the reasons why he continues to do collography. If I painted would it be the same? No, it wouldn't be the same. It is that I do not have in my mind to conceive this for painting. It is a limitation that I have in the eyes of many. But, above all things, I consider myself a tape recorder. And I'm not going to stop being one for the moment. Do you think that the most important thing you had to express as an artist has already been said in your work or do you think that you have not yet exhausted all its possibilities? Those are questions that I ask myself all the time. Once, in conversation with my friend Antonio Martorell, a Puerto Rican printmaker and painter, he told me: it is incredible how one becomes obsessed with certain subjects, and even if one does it differently, that is always there. In other words, obsession and turning around and falling into the same thing. And I wondered if he was repeating myself. Just imagine. Maybe, yes, maybe, no. The problem is that I feel that there are many people who are very simple when it comes to talking about an artist and a production. It is much easier to say: Ah, look, she works on the abakuá! It's fine, but there's not much more to it than that . ​ And since he speaks of obsession in the themes, just the same thing can happen to a viewer with his characters. They are and they are not, as you say. And they are characters who are saying things to me or are questioning me ... Exactly. I think that's what they are questioning. Interrogating others. A little that others are accomplices of what is happening there. As if they said: Here things are not clear. It is a disturbing situation. The title of my last exhibition, which was shown in Los Angeles, was Restlessness. Maybe that's the play. After so many years I realize the uneasiness. And perhaps that restlessness, as much or more than a religious character, has ... I'm going to tell you, it is more existential than religious. How were your beginnings since you studied at San Alejandro? I was sixteen years old in 83-84 when I was studying at San Alejandro and I had enormous problems with drawing, when the teachers suspended me a lot because I was a very bad draftsman with a model. And my figures looked like sticks. How did you get over that? More than drawing, thinking. And watching a lot and looking a lot. Many times I talk to my students who also work figuratively and have drawing problems. I tell them: look, I am not asking you for an academy, I am not asking you for hyper-realism, I ask you to convince me with what you are putting there. That that hand is credible, perhaps a little more, a little less, but that there is no disproportion, that it does not bother the eye. One of the characteristics that distinguishes his work is the absence of color. Does the use of white or black have a meaning? White is a value. Like black. Like the grays. The value is not the color, the value is the point of attention in the work. A figure because it is white, it is not white. A figure is white because it is a point of attention and because I work with white, black and values. That person may be black, but the value is white. In other words, it has a compositional sense. Exactly. Like this black man who makes a turn; the black goes there, in the serpent, in the face, in this eye and goes up to the other eyes that are inverted, returns to the black eye and goes to the black of the edge. The inclusion of black is a problem of composition, balance and rhythm in the piece. What is your relationship with the Abakuá universe: affective, cognitive? A difficult question. It is the way, the way, the solution that I found to say what I wanted. And I tell him: it is like letting go, and I have let myself go. When you go to work on this issue, at some point do you not do it like in a trance state? In a trance, but in quotes. The phenomenon is one of concentration, a problem of believing at the moment that I am doing it, even perhaps of acting. There is a bit of theatricality in all that ... Yes, it is very theatrical, like the ceremony of the Abakuá. For Fernando Ortiz it was like a theatrical performance. It is like bringing theater to religion. And religion to the theater. As for the trance, it is, above all, the concentration and the forced foot that they put me when working. In addition to the passion for the subject, the very fact of having been working on it for many years, does it not somehow reflect a fear on your part? That is, to stay conservatively in it because it does not initiate or face other subjects. Ah, look, maybe that's it. Of course, unconscious fear. I believe that there are unconscious things that become conscious. In your case, does it become conscious? I think so. I think that one can say things like that, and in another way. But I want to keep it that way. For now, because this is what I need to say. One of its characteristics is originality. I take from a million things. What I see that I like, I do. There is a whole screening process. I think this is like my son, this is something that I created. If I created it, I don't have to abandon it if I still have things to say. Well, forgive me, but you can have a child and then have another without necessarily abandoning the first. Ah well, for now I sit with only one! —Suddenly, when you get up in the morning, you say to yourself, I'm going to work today, do you already know what you're going to do? No. Until I have it here (he puts his index finger to his temple), I don't do anything. While that is happening I am looking at my books, the books that I buy, that I like, that are art. And as I go through them I say to myself, I like this composition, here I am going to put Fulano, Mengano and Ciclano. And this has to do with it, I want to talk about dissatisfaction, intolerance, I want to talk about betrayal or I want to talk about sacrifices. Many compositions I take, for example, from the family. The Family was a piece that had long been crushed on his head. I used to say, this has to come out somewhere. And it all came from the work of Gauguin Ana la Javanesa. That I love it; That is very important to me, that it marked me ... And the family comes out of that work, of that figure sitting so calmly. You have said that among your plastic references, in addition to those of the Abakuá universe, there were also Byzantine icons. The reference of the icons is purely formal. It is the shape of the arches, of the altarpieces, they always attracted me a lot and it was like inventing an iconography for these people. And also many times the compositions that I like so much. And I tell him that my work is the one that surprises me because it is the one that has led me to be what I am, not because I proposed it. Could it be that there is a certain ignorance of yourself, of who you are? If it is accepted that your characters, in addition to being disturbing, are defiant, one has every right to suppose that there is a struggle in you, between the Belkis that you want to challenge and the other that you knew is calm and that you want to go unnoticed. I think I'm out there. Is the fact that you are a woman and black reflecting your challenging characters in any way? Not at all, or at least, I don't intend to. It's just that I've never had a racial problem, you understand? Let me explain. I know that she has not had problems, on the contrary, anyone who sees her would say that she is a winner. But both you and I know ... I think these are things that are manipulated a lot and maybe they manipulate us or manipulate me. But it is not a conscious thing. In your work each signature is based on the idea that you are raising. That's how it is. Even in a work there may be different signatures but depending on the characters or their relationship with others. Yes. You start from the Abakuá myths as a source of your creative production, but the result, the work of art as such, is already something else, it transcends the reasons that originated it to become universal. It can be given more than one interpretation, even a connoisseur is impressed, not because of the mastery he may have of the matter but because of the indisputable artistic result. I really like the subtle things in the work, but also that the viewer is awake enough to discover them. BACK TO INTERVIEWS next article

Belkis Ayón at th e 34th São Paulo Biennal Although is dark, I still sign Diseño para el catálogo de la 34 Bienal de São Paulo y algunas obras incluidas en la exposición principal July 5, 2021 Isachi Durruthy Peñalver © Belkis Ayón Estate ​The 34th edition of the Sao Paulo Biennial will feature the work of Belkis Ayón (Havana 1967-1999). The event, one of the most prestigious in the world and an indisputable reference for the art of our continent, will host 16 works by the renowned Cuban artist. In total 14 prints, one of them, large format, and two matrices, also large format, will be exhibited from September 4 to December 5, 2021, at the Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion, located in Ibirapuera Park in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Belkis Ayón traced a renovating path for Latin American printmaking. Her peculiar aesthetic discourse grounded in the traditions of the Abakuá culture, her outstanding mastery of the collography technique, and her prolific work as a pedagogue made her one of the most prominent figures of 20th-century Cuban art. This is the first time that her work has been invited to participate in this notorious event, conceived as a polyphony of voices and points of view on contemporary artistic production. The 34th Biennial entitled Faz escuro mas eu canto [Although it's dark, I still sing] affirms the right to complexity and opacity, in expressions of art and culture, as well as in the identities of individuals and social groups, with a representation of 91 artists from 39 countries. The curatorial team is form by of Jacopo Crivelli Visconti, Paulo Miyada, Carla Zaccagnini, Francesco Stocchi and Ruth Estévez. The Cicillio Matarazzo, former Palace of Industry, also known as the Biennial Pavilion, is part of the original Ibirapuera Park complex in Sao Paulo and was designed by the famous Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer. ​ For more information on the 34th Sao Paulo Biennial visit HERE the official page NEXT NEWS

RENDERINGS: NEW NARRATIVES AND REINTERPRETATIONS Mechanical Hall at Delawere University, Philadelphia, United States September 3 - 30, 2014 In September 2014, the Brandywine Workshop in Philadelphia, opened to the public in the Mechanical Hall Gallery of the University of Delawere, an exhibition of works in paper from its archives and of invited artists for the exhibition, under the title: Renderings. New Narratives and Reinterpretations, curated by Dr. Cheryl Finley. In it, works by 26 artists from different nationalities were presented, among which were the Cuban printmakers Belkis Ayón and Ibrahim Miranda, all representatives of the art of the African diaspora. Participating artists: Terry Adkins, Maya Freelon Asante, Belkis Ayon, Camille Billops, Jamal Cyrus, Andrea Chung, Letitia Huckaby, Sedrick Huckaby, Curlee Raven Holton, Valerie Maynard, Paul F. Keene, Ibrahim Miranda, Ayanah Moor, Howardena Pindell, Michael B. Platt, Faith Ringgold, Robert Pruitt, Alison Saar, Betye Saar, Juan Sanchez, John T. Scott, Clarissa Sligh, Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum, Janet Taylor-Pickett, Hank Willis Thomas, Deborah Willis.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS Couturier Gallery, Los Angeles, California, United States ​ March 10, 1998 ​ Desasosiego / Restlessness Read more Church of St. Barbara, Breining, Germany ​ November 7, 1995 Unterstütze mich, halte mich hoch, im Schmerz. Belkis Ayón / Hold me in pain Read more Servando Cabrera Moreno Art Gallery ​ December, 1988 ​ Proposal at age 20 ​ Read more return to personal exhibitions

NKAME: A RETROSPECTIVE OF THE CUBAN PRINTMAKER BELKIS AYÓN (1967-1999) Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale, Arizona, United States October 13, 2018 - January 20, 2019 The traveling exhibition Nkame: a Retrospective of the Cuban Printmaker Belkis Ayón (1967-1999) was inaugurated on October 13, 2018, at its fifth venue, the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. A project organized by this prestigious institution and the Belkis Ayón Estate, Havana Cuba. The exhibition is curated by Cristina Vives. Exhibition Tour Management by Landau Traveling Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA. Photographs: Courtesy of the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art For more information, visit the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art website