El Acercamiento / The Approach
ABOUT THE PROJECT
ABOUT EL ACERCAMIENTO / THE APPROACH
EL ACERCAMIENTO/THE APPROACH is a groundbreaking multimedia transnational project conceived by artist Evelyn Serrano with Yamile Pardo, that investigates the past, present and possible futures of Cuba-U.S. relations. In La Habana, the process of normalization of relations between Cuba and the United States in 2015 and 2016 was termed “el acercamiento”, the slow and cautious act of getting closer. Over the course of 4 years, professional artists and arts students from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in Los Angeles, Academia Nacional de Artes San Alejandro and Instituto Superior de Arte in La Habana, have developed proposals for an acercamiento between our two countries in the form of urban interventions, workshops, performative actions, public dialogues, and arts exhibitions to give shape to a multiplicity of potential futures. The project challenges participating artists and audiences to insert themselves in the process of visioning and enacting of these futures.
El Acercamiento/The Approach is a 4-year project that was originated in 2015 and will culminate in 2018. Each year of the project, a group of arts students and professional artists creates, collaborates on, and presents new original visual and performing arts works in a new cycle of exhibitions, urban interventions, and public dialogues in La Habana, Los Angeles and Miami. El Acercamiento is part of CalArts Center for New Performance (CNP)/Duende CalArts' artistic initiatives.
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Find out more about what inspired el Acercamiento.
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PROJECT EVENTS
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May 18, 2018
Boat House Gallery, Plaza de la Raza, 3540 N. Mission Road, Los Angeles, U.S.
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March 30 and 31, 2018
El Ciervo Encantado Theater and various sites throughout La Habana and Pinar del Rio, Cuba
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January 6th, 2018
Centro Cultural Español, Miami, FL, U.S.
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March 29, 2017
Fabrica de Arte Cubano (F.A.C.), La Habana, Cuba
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December 1st, 2016
Centro Cultural Español, Miami, FL, U.S.
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May 7th- June 11, 2016
Boat House Gallery, Plaza de la Raza, 3540 N. Mission Road, Los Angeles, U.S.
March 23th, 2016, 6pm
Ludwig Foundation, CALLE 13 # 509, e/D y E, Vedado, La Habana, Cuba
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This project is supported by the CalArts Center for New Performance / Duende CalArts, Espacio a-106, and Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro.