I Encuentro Afrocostarricense de Artes Visuales
On October 29th, 2019 Atizay held its I Encuentro Afrocostarricense de Artes Visuales, (First Afro-Costa Rican Visual Arts Gathering), I EAAV, at the Museo Del Jade (Jade Museum) in Costa Rica. This cultural gathering was a wakeup call to acknowledge the underrepresentation of the Afro artsy community in Costa Rica and an opportunity to celebrate their meaningful work. We invited the audience to explore the richness, diversity, as well as the afro experiences in Costa Rica to better understand the need to open more spaces to the Afro community both inside and outside the artistic world.
From left to right: Christie and Tamara, co-founders of Atizay.
Due to the above-mentioned lack of representation, finding our invited visual artists was not an easy task, but all the talent and diversity we found within our art community was well worth our persistence and efforts. For this first edition of our EAAV we had the opportunity to collaborate with the following visual artists: Queen Nzinga Maxwell (Painter, Menstrual Art), Naomy Luna Madrigal (Painter, Audiovisual Production), Francis Quesada Oses (Painter), Whitney Oguilve Solís (Graver), Gregory James Willis (Photography, Food Styling) and Luguerre Janvier Janvier (Painter).
Panel of artists (from left to right): Naomy Luna Madrigal, Queen Nzinga Maxwell, Gregory James Willis, Francis Quesada Oses, Luguerre Janvier Janvier.
The I EAAV consisted of a panel discussion with the invited artists followed by a small reception in the main hall with all their artworks on display. The panel was an enriching conversation about each artist’s techniques, themes found in their work and their personal and collective experience as both black people and artists. We also tackled topics related to institutionalized racism in the art community, the underrepresentation and misrepresentation of the Afro Costa Rican artists and how we can contribute to opening more spaces for our own community in the visual arts field both at an individual and a collective level.
The night ended with an art raffle to incentivize creativity in the audience and the winners of the night were happy to take their new art supplies back home! As we wrapped up this enriching night, Bastard Abroad delighted us with a mixture of afro, house and tribal music while the attendees savored some snacks and continued to enjoy the artworks.
Post-panel reception.
It was gratifying to see and hear how much people got out of the experience. Shortly after the event, Gino messaged us: “THANK YOU! The conversation was very interesting; all the interventions of the participants were very enlightening and their position towards art is really inspiring. Thanks (...) for this invitation, we will look forward to the II Encuentro Afrocostarricense de Artes Visuales. Keep on strengthening the Afro artistic production and that of all of Costa Rica. Success!”
Our I Encuentro Afrocostarricense de Artes Visuales certainly allowed us to initiate an important, but often dismissed conversation, the underrepresentation and misrepresentation of Afro Artists in Costa Rica. We created a space for the Afro Community, where the invited artists were able to share who they are, as well as how they choose to be represented and to represent themselves. This gathering was also a reminder that it is our responsibility, as a community, to demand acknowledgement in art spaces as well as in society.
Photography by Andrea Solano.