On May 21, The Bronx Museum of the Arts kicks off its unprecedented exchange with Cuba’s El Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de La Habana (MNBA) with a major exhibition in Havana, Wild Noise: Artwork from The Bronx Museum of the Arts, featuring over 90 works by more than 50 artists from The Bronx Museum’s permanent collection.
The Bronx Museum of the Arts and El Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de La Habana (MNBA) are launching an unprecedented joint arts initiative that is the culmination of years of planning and collaboration. Wild Noise: Artwork from The Bronx Museum of the Arts and El Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes represents the most extensive visual arts exchange between the two countries in more than 50 years, and will include major exhibitions at MNBA and the Bronx Museum; an artist exchange with U.S. artist Mary Mattingly and Cuban artist Humberto Diaz; a teen exchange program; a series of educational and public programs; and the creation of a dual-language publication that will extend the impact of Wild Noise beyond the audiences that participate directly in the initiative.
The launch of Wild Noise will be concurrent with the 12th Bienal de La Habana, with the exhibition of more than 90 works by over 50 artists from the Bronx Museum’s permanent collection on view at MNBA from May 21 through August 16, 2015. Wild Noise will feature works created from the 1960s to the present day that reveal the ways contemporary artists are addressing questions of identity, urban life, and community. The initiative will also send for the first time over 90 works from MNBA’s permanent collection to the U.S. to be presented at the Bronx Museum in spring 2016. The title of the initiative—Wild Noise—is taken from a Victor Hugo poem, “Ma vie est déjà dans l’ombre de la mort,” and refers to the sublimity and chaos of urban spaces, “the wild noise where infinity begins.” The theme resonates with this year’s Bienal de La Habana, which will be held at locations across the city, integrating into the urban fabric of Havana and its communities.
At the Bronx Museum, Wild Noise is organized by Executive Director Holly Block, and Director of Programs Sergio Bessa. At the MNBA, the project is spearheaded by Director Ana Cristina Perez and curated by Corina Matamoros, Curator of Contemporary Cuban Art, and Aylet Ojeda Jequin, Curator of Contemporary Cuban Art and Naïve Art.
For more info, visit: www.bronxmuseum.org