Two artists from Japan spent about a month in Havana to collaborate with local residents and a facility for individuals with mental disabilities through workshops and exhibitions. The workshops incorporated traditional Japanese arts and techniques that are rooted in local communities and lifestyles.
Artists: Chloe Paré, Motoki Watanabe
Local organizations: La Asociación Cubana de Personas en Situación de Discapacidad Intelectual (ACPDI), Casa de las Américas
Venue: Villena Room/UNEAC (Calle 17, esquina H, Vedado) ※moved to the above organization venue for the later part of the exhibition.
Chloe Paré will collaborate with facilities supporting people with intellectual disabilities, incorporating traditional Japanese “washi” papermaking. The project is called “geometría polisentimental” and will create a collaborative map of Havana. Workshop participants will incorporate Havana’s cityscape and their daily lives into the washi-making process, creating a multi-perspective sensory map that weaves together personal stories and collective memories.。
Motoki Watanabe will incorporate elements of traditional Japanese papier-mâché, masks, and tsugi-jishi, a performing art from his hometown of Imabari City, Ehime Prefecture, collaborating with local children and residents at the Roberto Fernández Retamar Library. He will make masks with workshop participants, and they will create sounds, actions and stories coming from the masks for a local performance.
Chloe Paré
Born 1996 in Athens, Greece.
Chloe Paré is an Athens-born and Tokyo-based visual artist and researcher, inspired by the intra-actions and fictions of the material world. She facilitates spaces of entanglements with organic and non-organic beings, through workshops, sculptural installations, and art books in collaboration with cultural, educational, and healthcareorganizations. As of 2024, she is a PhD candidate in the Department of Global Arts: Art Studies and Curatorial Practices of Tokyo University of the Arts.
Motoki Watanabe
Born in Imabari City, Ehime Prefecture, Japan. Enrolled in the master’s degree program in the Department of Global Art Practice at the Graduate School of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts. Captures “discomfort” through video, installation and performance art using narrative and body. Investigates responses to the pain and anger of others and oneself.