TO THE FORGOTTEN ONES...

 

The context is opportune. Jean Dubuffet said that everyone has a creative potential that social norms destroy. I could also say that social pressures and nonconformities boost repressed and psychologically unbalanced people and their creative capacity. That’s why it’s possible to encounter very creative but isolated, abandoned or disappointed individuals, by regarding artistic creation as the most important tool for communication, without the necessity for exposure or to become well known.

 

The first person to approach the Art Brut term in Cuba was Samuel Feijóo (1914-1992), poet, narrator, folklorist, painter, editor, critic, teacher, and journalist. In 1983, Feijóo traveled to Lausanne, Switzerland, responding to Jean Dubuffet’s request to show in the Collection de L’Art Brut, in the exhibition named “Art Inventif á Cuba.” This was comprised of several pieces by young Cuban artists, most of them naïf artists, self-taught and described by Dubuffet as “singular artists” but not necessarily as Art Brut artists.

 

Since then, Art Brut was conceived as totally isolated, scattered and studied by few. It was also mixed up with Naïf and Popular Art tendencies, as a way of expression outside the academics’ boundaries. Alternative art as an emergent phenomenon provided space for some of these artists without noticing the real contents of their expression. Art Brut Project Cuba was born inside Riera Studio to develop Art Brut in our country. We created a working group, whose purpose was to gather all the information relating to this matter, to search for artists and analyze the possibilities and aptitudes of the chosen artists in urban and rural areas, and to create a social awareness program, mainly regarding their families. Henceforth, we were able to attract around 20 people in vulnerable conditions and with a highly creative activity, although not all of them worked continuously in a way that would allow us to work permanently with them.

 

Art Brut Project Cuba had a young but intense activity during its short existence over more than a year and a half. We continue to permanently cultivate the independent attitude of our artists and the conscious support of their relatives. We are walking along a delicate path where mental creativity inspires the observers and moves the most sensitive ones. It’s a fight against those who think it’s impossible to change mentalities through art. Certainly, this tool exists, consciously or not, for those who chose it and are strongly tied to it. We will always support the words and voices of those who were forgotten because of their different way of thinking.

 

Samuel Riera, artist, curator and director of RIERA STUDIO | Art Brut Project Cuba and collector of Cuban Art Brut