AY MIJA, NO ES FÁCIL! – Elena Alonso Fernández

April 24 – May 11, 2019

A participatory painting project made in collaboration with Cubans, from both the Berlin diaspora and Cuba itself

The project portrays, from Cuban’s people perspective, the peak of social change in their country since the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. Ay mija! denies the idea of an homogeneous collective identity, and embrace s instead the polyphony and contradictions present in the cuban society. The biographical testimonies of the participants served as the basis for a series of paintings and a video installation exhibited in Santiago de Cuba (2018). During this exhibition the gallery visitors were invited to participate and complete with their contribution the artwork initiated in the diaspora. The final version of the project was shown for the first time in Arthaus (Havana) during the XIII Havana Biennale and is now presented in Berlin.

*1986 in Vigo (Galicia, Spain), lives and works in Berlin. Graduated at UdK’s postgraduate master’s program “Art in Context”. Studied fine arts at Salamanca’s University. 2008 Exchange student at Aalto University Helsinki and 2009 at Barcelona’s University. Alumni of the exhibitions-abroad promotion program of the ifa (Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations). Her work focuses on the interface between painting and participatory art. Selected projects: “Let me be your mirror” 2014 (online), “Lass mich dein Spiegel werden, Bernau” 2015 (Bernau), “Pozwól mi stać się twoim lustrem, Skwierzyno” 2016-17 (Skwierzyna) and the collective sculpture in public space “Tyoläinen on Lähtenyt” 2009 (Helsinki).