Novenario
Join a journey where artists imagine transformation of the stage of pain and grief, to a stage of potential; where rage, pain, and beauty insist to coexist.
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico
Curated by Lydia Platón Lázaro
Novenario Exhibition View First hall, first gallery (2021-10-23/2022-05-01)Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico
Novenario marks the mode in which artists imagine the transformation from a state of pain and loss to a state of potential; where anger, pain, and beauty insist on co-existing.
Novenario Exhibition View First hall, first gallery (2021-10-23/2022-05-01)Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico
This exhibition proposes to highlight the labor of mourning that is painted, drawn, photographed, weaved, sculpted, danced, sang, and written, stemming from devastating events of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Novenario Exhibition View First hall, second gallery (2021-10-23/2022-05-01)Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico
These events have accumulated in the artistic archive, without necessarily having made an entry into the local history of art, as fragments of perhaps the most transformative events in our brief lives.
Novenario Exhibition View First hall, second gallery (2021-10-23/2022-05-01)Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico
It marks the nine months of gestation of new lives, the nine days and nights in which different spiritual communities gather in Puerto Rico to say rosaries, play drums or to wait for the passing of the spirit.
Minuflí Now (2021) by Dhara RiveraMuseo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico
In the 1980s, Dhara Rivera’s grandmother told her about the family’s experiences of Hurricane San Ciriaco in 1899, and the unexpected death of her husband one month prior.
This installation produces the effects of familiarity and connection to the narrative of mourning and comfort, with a dystopic rocking chair that rocks from side to side, crochet, fabric, metal, and video elements.
Novenario Exhibition View Second hall (2021-10-23/2022-05-01)Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico
The artwork selected commemorates imaginary novenaries, nine night ceremonies to name the work of mourning.
Our Mind; A Weapon (2018) by Gabi Pérez-SilverMuseo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico
Gabi Pérez-Silver documents the before and after the fact of her father’s death, in the practice of co-presence, to highlight the fragility and strength of the mind. The practice of mourning precedes and accompanies her powerful gaze on the subject and his condition...
...her difficulty in apprehending him, and at the same time, her will to set him free. The original photo project was intended to document their lives and encounters at the time, but death was accelerated by the conditions of life in the aftermath of Hurricane María.
Novenario Exhibition View Second hall (2021-10-23/2022-05-01)Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico
It marks the nine months of gestation of new lives, the nine days and nights in which different spiritual communities gather in Puerto Rico to say rosaries, play drums or to wait for the passing of the spirit.
Novenario Exhibition View Third hall, first gallery (2021-10-23/2022-05-01)Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico
It is the mystical number nine of life cycles and the re-signified territories of mourning in the work of several contemporary artists from Puerto Rico of different generations and practices.
Evidence EvidenceMuseo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico
Nayda Collazo-Llorens’ contribution to the novenary is an archive of mourning. What began as a lament for the landscape, became the testimony of the loss of a loved one.
Novenario Exhibition View Third hall, second gallery (2021-10-23/2022-05-01)Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico
However, mourning here does not account for a historiographical retelling of tragedy; rather, it proposes a shared artistic sentiment that wishes to be mediated by the gaze and the memory of its spectators today.
Maravilla Triptych (1986) by Nelson Sambolín BonillaMuseo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico
This drawing, made after a meticulous investigation of the murders of Carlos Enrique Soto Arriví and Arnaldo Darío Rosado Torres that occurred at Cerro Maravilla in 1978, is the product of a process of drawing and erasing based on never before published photos of the event.
These images were exhibited for the first time along with another drawing by the artist called Nuestra Señora de Mameyes, about the 1985 dramatic landslide caused by the rains of 1985 in the Mameyes neighborhood of Ponce, where 130 people died.
Both instances of mourning are part of a collective memory that draws us. This relationship between Mameyes and Cerro Maravilla haunts us from the detail of the drawing, the closeness of state violence and nature’s violence, and its terrible consequences for survivors.
Novenario Exhibition View Third hall, third gallery (2021-10-23/2022-05-01)Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico
Certainly, the exhibition also wants to dialogue and mourn with those who don’t know this history, in hopes that the work shown here provides a sense of how pain is transformed in the imagination of other realities, materialities, and dreams.
Damballah Air and Water Deities (2016/2021) by Humberto FigueroaMuseo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico
Damballah is a snake that existed before earthly problems began, symbolizing origins: the heavens, the earth, air, water and the rainbow. He is always accompanied by Ayida-Wédo, who represents the femenine and fertility, creating a perfect circle that neutralizes both.
Figueroa calls them both Madamas in his work, erasing the masculinity of the creator serpent, incorporating them to the pantheon of dolls, and transforming the circle created by Damballah and Ayida into feminine knowledge and hope.
All My Dead Ones: Altar-Performance (2021-11-06) by Merián SotoMuseo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico
Todos mis muertos is a performance by Merián Soto. The altar was created in collaboration with Awilda Sterling Duprey. The artist dedicated the piece to her brother Alex Soto and those who passed after Hurricane Maria. Click here for video documentation of the performance.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Rafael Flores Pérez, President
María Awilda Quintana-Román, Vicepresident
José Negrón, Treasurer
Antonio García, Secretary
Salvador Alemañy Rubén Méndez Benabe
Rashid Molinary
Pedro Muñoz Marín
Ana L. Rivero Iturregui
Luis Fernando Rodríguez
Dennis Simonpietri
María Elba Torres
MUSEUM STAFF
Marianne Ramírez Aponte, Executive Director and Chief Curator
Evita Busa, Deputy Director and Education Director
ADMINISTRATION
Wanda Michelle Dilán, Administrator
Alexnel Suárez and Lorielle Vázquez, Administrative Assistants
DEVELOPMENT
Brenna Quigley, Development Associate
MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS
Karla Díaz Ocasio, Marketing and Entrepeneurial Initiatives
Dalila Rodríguez Saavedra, Coordinator
Ingrid Bonetti Veloz, Graphic Design and Digital Communication
Jorge Pardo, MAC Shop
EDUCATION
Natalia M. Centeno López, Coordinator
Joudy Santaliz Cuevas, Coordinator, Enlace: Museo / Escuela
Karen Net Zayas, Coordinator, Convivencia Creativa y Ciudadana
EXHIBITIONS AND COLLECTIONS
Marina Reyes Franco, Curator
Karin Cardona, Head Archivist
Mariela Collazo Heredia, Registrar
Pablo Serrano Otero, Preparator
LA 18 UNIDAD AUDIOVISUAL
Rhett Lee García, Production Manager and Director
Guillermo Fígoli, Production Coordinator and Director
MAC EN EL BARRIO
Windy Cosme Rosario, Manager
Sara Marina Dorna Pesquera and Donald Escudero, Coordinators
EXHIBITION CREDITS
Lydia Platón Lázaro, PhD, Guest Curator
Lilianna Rivera, Curatorial Assistant
Marina Reyes Franco, Exhibition Coordination
Mariela Collazo Heredia, Registrar
Marina Reyes Franco and Pablo Serrano Otero, Exhibition Design
Pablo Serrano Otero, Preparator
Esteban Alberty, Sebastián Gutiérrez and Zulmarí Quintana, Exhibition Installation Assistants
Evita Busa, Natalia Centeno, Karen Net Zayas, Lydia Platón Lázaro, PhD and Joudy Santaliz, Education Program
Carolina Cortés and Brenna Quigley, Fundraising
Dalila Rodríguez Saavedra, Communications Coordinator
Welmo Romero Joseph, Coordinator, MAC en el Barrio, Barrio Obrero
LENDERS TO THE EXHIBITION
Colección Reyes Veray
Museo de Arte de Bayamón
Museo de Historia, Antropología y Arte, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Río Piedras
SPONSORS
The Andy Warhol Curatorial Fellowship
Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña
National Endowment for the Arts
Comisión Especial Conjunta de Fondos Legislativos para Impacto Comunitario
Fondo Flamboyán para las Artes
The Ford Foundation
Liberty Business
