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Habana in the Park: Avion Cubano art project and exhibit

January 20, 2012 @ 7:00 pm

PAINTED CUBAN PLANE AND FREEDOM LUGGAGE INSTALLATION

Miami artist Xavier Cortada created this participatory art piece so Cuban exiles could recount their journey to freedom. See www.cortada.org The participatory art project and exhibit of photographs is presented by the City of Hialeah, the FIU College of Architecture + The Arts | Office of Engaged Creativity and the University of Miami Libraries Cuban Heritage Collection

 Miami artist Xavier Cortada created this participatory art piece so Cuban exiles could recount their journey to freedom.
The participatory art project and exhibit of photographs is presented by the City of Hialeah, the FIU College of Architecture + The Arts | Office of Engaged Creativity and the University of Miami Libraries Cuban Heritage Collection.
In May 2004, ¡Celebra Libertad ! featured Xavier Cortada’s painted airplane:  his painting on the actual Russian Antonov-2 Colt airplane that brought a family from Cuba to the United States.
Cortada also presented 45 pieces of luggage numbered sequentially from 1959 to 2004, representing each year the Cuban community has been in exile.  Each piece is to  include letters from exiles describing their diaspora:
Name: _________________ ____________________________
Where are you from (city in Cuba): _______________
Date of departure from Cuba: ____________________
1. What did you leave behind? ___________________________________________
2. What did you find when you arrived?___________________________________
Participants are invited to contribute their comments.  Answer the questions above and mail them to:
Cuban Heritage Collection/ University of Miami Libraries
Xavier Cortada Collection
1300 Memorial Drive / P.O. Box 248214
Coral Gables, FL 33124-0320
Cortada created this art piece with the idea that it would be a living monument through which Cuban exiles could communicate their journey from a tyrannical regime to the home of the free. The plane and its freedom luggage concept is part of an interactive piece asking exiles to recount their journey to freedom.
Messages were originally solicited from exiles and placed in the suitcases surrounding the plane. The 46 pieces of luggage numbered sequentially from 1959 to 2004, representing each year the Cuban community has been in exile. Letters from exiles describing what they left behind in Cuba  and what they found when they arrived here are still being collected. The originals are stored at the Cuban Heritage Collection in the UM Library and will be uploaded being placed in virtual galleries spaning from 1959 to the present.
Xavier Cortada, “Painted Cuban Plane and Freedom Luggage Installation,” 2004.

Details

Date:
January 20, 2012
Time:
7:00 pm

Organizer

Lisa Setrini-Espinosa
Email
LSetrini@hialeahfl.gov

Venue

Walker E. Library
Hialeah, FL 33012 United States + Google Map