BORIMIX: Stone Yucayeque/ El Yucayeque de Piedra
Title: Stone Yucayeque/ El Yucayeque de Piedra
Curators: Melissa M. Ramos Borges, Irene Esteves Amador, Carlos Ortiz Burgos, Miguel Trelles Hernández
Artists: Vincenzo Amato, Grimaldi Báez, Rogelio Báez-Vega, Bemba P.R., Tari Beroszi, Johnny Betancourt, Lionel Cruet, Tony Cruz Pabón, Sofia Gallisá Muriente, Zaida Goveo, Lorenzo Homar, Karlo Andrei Ibarra, Leo Laboy y LA PUERTA, Natalia Lassalle, José Lerma, Ada del Pilar Ortiz, André Marcel Pagán Rolón, Kevin Quiles Bonilla, Carlos Raquel Rivera, José Rosa, Camille Rouzard, Aaron Salabarrías, Garvin Sierra, Yiyo Tirado, Rafael Trelles, Nitza Tufiño, Rafael Tufiño, Migdalia Umpierre, Rebecca Zilenziger
Gallery: Abrazo Interno Gallery & LES Gallery
Dates: November 12 – December 18, 2021
Opening Reception: November 12, 2021
On Sunday, November 13 @ 3pm: Guided curatorial virtual tour with Melissa M. Ramos Borges, Irene Esteves Amador and Carlos Ortiz Burgos and Miguel Trelles Hernández. Via LATEA Remoto, LATEA FB Live and LATEA’s YouTube Channel.
This year’s Borimix visual art exhibition, Stone Yucayeque/ El Yucayeque de Piedra, addresses the capital city of Puerto Rico, San Juan and the 500 year (1521/22 – 2021) anniversary of its foundation.
At the start of the encounter which devastated innumerable indigenous civilizations throughout the Americas to establish a large European overseas colony, the Antillean archipelago -the Taíno and Caribe homestead- was precocious. The Spanish Caribbean that remains began to take shape in the 1500s. In 1508 Juan Ponce de León establishes La Villa de Caparra in the island of Boriquén and by 1521 the Spanish abandon Caparra to “privilege” a small islet off the Northern coast of Puerto Rico as their permanent base: San Juan de Puerto Rico. From then on Puerto Rico is the site of a duality that endures: the Island and the islet, the native civilization and the invaders, mud floors and cobblestones, the country (nature) and the city (urbanism). “Stone Yucayeque” aspires to reflect on how San Juan was erected on the islet, the evolution of its iconicity throughout these past 5 centuries of representations while it also seeks to honor the indigenous (naborias) under and the stolen Africans, the “entrusted” and the enslaved, anonymous laborers all, responsible for carrying out the construction of a new Spanish city.
About BORIMIX:
Originated in 2005 by Sociedad Educativa de las Artes, Inc. (Teatro SEA) and its Founder/Director Manuel Morán and The Clemente resident visual artist Miguel Trelles, BORIMIX Puerto Rico Fest has become the signature Puerto Rican Heritage Month event at The Clemente. The yearly visual art exhibits that have accompanied previous festivals and continue to this day are not only a key showcase for Puerto Rican visual artists in New York but also an inclusive platform for Caribbean, Latin American and a diverse contingent of participating artists from New York and all over the world. Throughout past Borimixes guest curators have reflected on and enhanced the collaborative ethos of the visual arts component as manifested by exhibits such as BoriCuba, Borinqueya, BoriMex, BoriColombia, BoriEcuador, and BoriAyiti. Currently this unique Festival is co-produced by The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center, and its resident Latinx theaters, Teatro SEA, and Teatro LATEA.
About this year’s co-curators:
Melissa M. Ramos Borges is an independent researcher/curator and professor of Art History and Theory at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez and Río Piedras Campus. Ramos Borges holds a doctorate in Art History from the Universidad Autónoma of Madrid (2020), where she specialized in avant-garde art produced between 1960-1980 in Puerto Rico. Her latest project, SUZI FERRER is the first retrospective exhibition of the groundbreaking artist, currently on view at the Museo de Arte y Diseño de Miramar (MADMi).
Irene Esteves Amador is the Director of The Museo y Centro de Estudios Humanísticos Dra. Josefina Camacho de la Nuez at The Universidad Ana G. Méndez, Gurabo campus, where she also teaches. Trained as an art conservator and art historian, Esteves Amador holds a doctorate in art conservation from the University of Seville. The Artists Documentation Program of the Menill Collection (Houston) and the Whitney Museum of Art (New York) recently awarded her a Fellowship. In 2019 she published “Conservation through Documentation. Myrna Baez: The Artist and her Voice” (Isla Negra Editores).
Carlos Otiz Burgos is an independent art historian with a B.A. from the University of Puerto Rico and currently pursuing graduate studies in Florida State University. Ortiz Burgos has curated exhibits at Galería Guatíbiri, Galería Borikén, Galería/Casa Jeffereson, and Museo de la Historia de Ponce. He has collaborated with non-profits, private collectors, and galleries in events such as Miami Art Week, London Art Fair and Zonamaco. In 2021 he published “The Amazing Ske: Historia del graffiti en Puerto Rico narrada por un pionero”.
Miguel Trelles is a Clemente resident visual artist. In 2019 he exhibited “Chino-Latino: Barbarian Brush” in Chengdu. Since 2017 Trelles has been the Executive/Artistic Director of Teatro LATEA, the foundational theater of The Clemente. Currently a professor of Spanish at the Modern Languages and Comparative Literature Department in Baruch College, he has organized, curated and/or co-curated Borimix visual art exhibitions since 2005.
Photo documentation by Frank Fantini