Creative lab project assembles Cuban and foreign artists

HAVANA, Cuba, September 3 (ACN) Exodus: Indigenous and Afro-descendant Ancestralities is the name of an artist residency project funded by Iberescena and made up of artists from Cuba, Ecuador and Chile devoted to theater, circus, rap music, and poetry.

For two weeks, according to the organizers, they will be engaged in the work of a creative lab intended to create a stage poem that brings together all disciplines, centered on topics such as migration, inter-culturality, and the memories of natives and Afro-descendants.

“The process will end with an exhibition open to the public on Friday, September 5”, Chilean actress and producer Camila Olfos remarked. “We chose Cuba because one of the artists of Exodus attended the Congress of the International Association of Theater for Children and Youth (ASSITEJ) and we established links even with Spain’s Iberescena. Besides, there’s also a desire to return and contribute from everyone’s field”.

Promoting cultural exchange is the main goal, as all the artists share their knowledge and expertise through master classes in buffoonery and rituals, comedy and clowning, rap, poetry, spoken word, creations for early childhood, and audio-biographical memory. All of this is brought together by the artistic director, the Chilean Ingrid Flores, winner of the 2023 National Performing Arts Award (Circus Mention) in her country.

The theme of Exodus stems from the growing waves of migration within the region, including Cuba, and the approach to these phenomena throughout time, based always on questions about where we come from and what our origins are—African descent, indigenous roots—so that we can come up with autobiographical material created from theater games and writing, poetry and rap exercises, Ms. Olfos pointed out.