Curated by Nestor Siré
A New Digital Deal, Ars Electronica, Garden Cuba, Linz, Austria [2021]
Cuba’s late and gradual incorporation to the internet, as well as the limitations still present in access to technologies, have shaped the ways in which digital art is produced, presented and distributed. While for most of the world’s citizens being online is a naturalised action, on the island it is not, since access to the internet is recent, unstable, restricted and expensive. Artists move between offline and online spaces (virtual and physical) without apparent conflict, a singularity extended to all social and cultural practices.
This has given rise to very peculiar forms of digital interaction and distribution, thus emerging a series of alternative phenomena that are products of social creativity. The most popular is the Paquete Semanal (Weekly Package), a collection of one terabyte files, which is distributed person-to-person across the country and covers a wide variety of digital entertainment media. Within the Paquete Semanal there is the !!!Sección ARTE, a digital exhibition space that presents art projects on a monthly basis through the folder structures.
The Disconnected Experiences project, through a call aimed at the Cuban art scene, proposes an approach to digital practices, cultural experiences and the adaptation of technologies. In parallel to its online presence in Ars Electronica, Disconnected Experiences it will be exhibited offline through !!!Sección ARTE, in the Paquete Semanal, with an approximate reach of 10 million users in Cuba.
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PRESENTATIONS
Disconnected Experiences in !!!Sección ARTE [No. 35]
You will be able watch live the process of copying of hundreds of TB of information in a point of sale of the Paquete Semanal (Weekly Package) in Havana, a place where digital content is distributed and copied in person. Around 300 users a day search for entertainment materials there. At the same time, this space will be intervened with screens that exhibit the videos that make the part of the curated program Disconnected Experience, making for them the ideal site where the dichotomies connected/disconnected come to live.
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Disconnected Experiences of digital practices in Cuba
“Disconnected Experiences of digital practices in Cuba” is a video that will gather the impressions of everyone involved in the project, including the curator, the organizing committee, the jury and the selected artists. This material will not only document the dynamics of the curatorial presentation, but will also contain an overview of digital art practices in Cuba. This video will be available in the !!!Sección ARTE, which circulates within the Paquete Semanal (Weekly Package) for national offline distribution. For its online presentation it will be launched through the digital platforms of the institutions associated with the curatorial project as a live stream.
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Habana Espacios Creativos
Screening of the participating videos and colloquium by the curator of the project together with the members of the jury, the organizers of the event and the participating artists.
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CREDIT
Curador: Nestor Siré
Grupo Directivo: Jorge Peralta and Michael M. Thoss
Coordinador: Raquel Ávila
Jurado: Cristina Figueroa Vives, Jorge Fernández and Yusniel Mentado
Asistencia: Yainet Rodríguez
Instituciones Asociadas: CLIC Cuba-Europe, EUNIC Cuba, European Union, Oficina del Historiador de la Ciudad de La Habana (CU), Habana Espacios Creativos (CU) y !!!Sección ARTE (CU).