Diago: The Past of This Afro-Cuban Present
Feb 2 – May 5, 2017
Cooper Gallery of African and African American Art
Harvard University
Hours: Tues – Sat, 10:00am – 5:00pm

A leading member of the new Afro-Cuban cultural movement, visual artist Juan Roberto Diago (b 1971) has produced a body of work that offers a revisionist history of the Cuban nation. His “history,” a term that he frequently inserts in his works using the visual language of graffiti, contradicts the official narrative of a racially harmonious nation, created through the selfless efforts of generous white patriots. Diago’s Cuba is a nation built on pain, rape, greed, and the enslavement of millions of displaced Africans, a nation still grappling with the long-term effects of slavery and colonialism. To him, slavery is not the past, but a daily experience of racism and discrimination. Africa is not a root, but a wellspring of cultural and personal affirmation, the ancestors that sustain him in his journey. This exhibition examines Diago’s creative work on the course of his entire career. It traces its singular efforts to construct new pasts, the pasts required to explain the racial tensions of contemporary Cuba, the pasts of this Afro-Cuban present.

As an important member of the new Afro-Cuban cultural movement, visual artist Juan Roberto Diago (born in 1971) has produced a work that offers a revisionist history of the Cuban nation. His “history,” a term he frequently includes in his works through graffiti, contradicts the official version of a nation of harmoniously living races, a version created by the unselfish efforts of generous white patriots. Diago’s Cuba is a nation created in the pain, rape, greed and slavery of millions of Africans banished from their roots, a nation that is still struggling against the long-term effects of slavery and colonialism. For Diago, slavery is not the past but a daily experience of racism and discrimination. Africa is not the root but a source of cultural and personal affirmation, the ancestors that support it in its journey. This exhibition examines Diago’s creative work throughout his career. It traces its extraordinary efforts to build new pasts, the past that are needed to explain the racial tensions of contemporary Cuba, the past of this Afro-Cuban present.