Art during crisis: session on Cuba
Through digital sessions, Art during crisis explores the role of art in times of crisis, such as (international) resistance, solidarity and hospitality.
On 5 November our conversation focuses on Cuba.
About Cuba
Following a history of colonialism, revolutions and geopolitical influences, Cuba is suffering severe economic damage and shortages as a result of the US embargo. During this session, we are inviting two artists who are committed to creating, curating and making space for voices both within and outside Cuba. We will discuss the country’s history and how politics influences Cuban art and culture.
Where does the art scene in Cuba stand today, and what is needed to support artists?
Practical
Thursday 5 November from 1pm until 2pm, online via Zoom.
The conversations are held in English.
Speakers
William Ruiz Morales is a dramaturg, producer, and cultural strategist whose practice holds two things he has never experienced as separate: his artistic work and building the structures that let other artists and organizations build theirs. He was trained in Theater Sciences at the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana (2007) and completed a research cycle at P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels in 2016.
His organizational work has taken shape through independent platforms including Espacios Ibsen(Havana, 2013–2017) and Living Away (New York & Miami, 2018–2020), programme development at Los Angeles Performance Practice (2023–2026), and ongoing collaborations with Choreo-Persona and the Network of Ensemble Theaters.
He maintains a research-based artistic practice moving between performance, dance, and lecture-based formats, drawing from Caribbean experiences of precarity and improvisation and treating repurposing as an ethical practice. Performance series such as Lectures by the Idiot (begun 2017), Bojeo (2016–2020), and Derrotero (2023) approach performance as mapping, connecting personal history, political context, and spatial awareness. He has been consolidating this work around what he calls radical availability: a commitment to responsiveness and mutual aid.
He is currently developing Flyways, a documentary anchored in the life of his great-grandfather Bernardo Ruiz Suárez, an Afro-Cuban intellectual who published The Color Question in the Two Americas in 1922 in Harlem, alongside a bilingual republication of that book. Through Ouow Studio, he holds this work as one continuous practice, developing projects across Los Angeles, Europe, and Cuba.
Register now
Register for free via the button at the top right.
More information
Find out everything about the online discussions organised by Art during crisis here.
Do you have any other questions? Please contact our colleague Femke.
