Call for Submissions

—Afro-Cuban Artists:

A Renaissance Choco

The Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at the University of Missouri has sent out a call for proposals for an international interdisciplinary conference entitled Afro-Cuban Artists: A Renaissance. The deadline for submissions is December 15, 2015.

Afro-Cuban Artists: A Renaissance is an international interdisciplinary conference hosted by the MU Department of Romance Languages and Literatures. This four day event will be of interest to scholars, and students, as well as creative artists working in the African Diaspora, Cuban/Caribbean /Latin American arts, art history, history, culture, religions, ritual, performances, gender or ethnic studies. The conference will explore various topics related to the aesthetics, socio-cultural and political antecedents, context and impact of the Afro-Cuban artists who came of age after 1959.

Three leading contemporary Afro-Cuban artists, Manuel Mendive (1944), Eduardo “Choco” Roca Salazar (1949), and Santiago Rodríguez Olazábal (1955) will be present and hold exhibitions in Columbia, Missouri, during the conference. In addition, Mendive will present a performance with painted bodies. Documentaries by Juanamaría Cordones-Cook examining the artists’ life and work will be screened.

Proposals for presentations of papers and visual performances are welcome on topics related, but not limited to: arts and race; African Diaspora arts in Latin America; ethnicity and visual interpretation; aesthetics and religion; dialogue between the arts; the magic space of image, ritual, and art performance; institutional organization and art production; performance of Africanity in the visual arts; collaborative art production; and art and social and political contexts.

The deadline for submission is December 15, 2015. Anyone wishing to present a paper may submit a proposal online at https://missouri.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_6omNp0YM6XvyXml. Each presentation will be limited to 20 minutes. The proposals will be peer reviewed. Applicants will be notified by February 10, 2016. Approved presenters must confirm their attendance by registering for the conference no later than March 1, 2016.  The conference fee is $125.00, which includes presentation of papers, admittance to the exhibitions, performances, and film screenings. Student fee is $70.00.

The website http://muconf.missouri.edu/afrocubanart will be updated after November 15 and will provide further conference information.

For content information, please contact Dr. Juanamaría Cordones-Cook, Project Director atcordonescookj@missouri.edu.

Image above: Santiago Rodríguez Olazábal’s “El buen camino” from http://www.cubanartnews.org/news/catching-up-in-havana-santiago-rodriguez-olazabal-at-galeria-habana

Images above: Top: “Caribbean Dream,” by Eduardo Roca Salazar from http://www.escala.org.uk/events/talks-tours/talk-by-visiting-cuban-artists-from-the-exhibition-beyond-the-frame; second, Manuel Mendibe’s “Se alimenta mi espíritu” from http://www.cernudaarte.com/artists/manuel-mendive/ ; and third, Santiago Rodríguez Olazábal’s “El buen camino” from http://www.cubanartnews.org/news/catching-up-in-havana-santiago-rodriguez-olazabal-at-galeria-habana

>via: http://repeatingislands.com/2015/10/14/call-for-submissions-afro-cuban-artists-a-renaissance/