Mabel Poblet Pujol (b. 1986)
Artist Statement
This installation of Kyoto imagenes alta instaladas from Mabel’s most recent Exhibition in Japan at Museo of Kyoto consists of five Spheres enclosing rotating images, which were digitally created from a photographic session on the South coast of Florida.
The installation encourages the viewer to reflect on the fragility of life and the power of hope and trust. All images are based on self-portraits taken by Mabel on the coast of Key West, one of the first places that migrants reach as an arrival destination after crossing the sea. The spherical structure enclosing the images gives a sense of infinity. It alludes to the sea, which can be a bridge that unites or a barrier, that separates. Through the image’s constant rotation, the installation creates ever new constellations, that can never be grasped in their entirety. The rotational movement eliminates any possibility of fixed viewpoints and continually dilutes and relocates the perspective. It makes the viewer an integral part of the very moment. It creates a connection between viewer and the migrant’s final decision. A continuous interplay between hope and trust.
Mabel Poblet Pujol (Cienfuegos, Cuba, 1986) Resident in Havana. Graduate from the Higher Institute of Arts, Havana (ISA, 2012) and from San Alejandro National Art Academy (2007). Part of the Project-Workshop Conducta (Behavior) by the Cuban artist Tania Bruguera. Member of Cuba’s National Union of Artists and Writers (UNEAC). She has participated in more than 20 solo exhibitions and in more than 100 group exhibitions. In 2018, she was awarded for an Exceptional Career by the Embassy of Mexico in Cuba. During an internship, she received the Noemi Award of the Brownstone Foundation (Paris, 2014). In 2017, she was invited to be part of the Cuban Art Pavilion at Venice Biennial. She has participated in the group exhibitions: Kunst Cuba (Ludwig Forum, 2017, Aachen, Germany), ARTXIOMAS (Art Museum of the Americas, Washington DC, United States, 2016), Complicated Beauty: Contemporary Cuban Art (Tampa Museum, Florida, United States, 2016), 4ta Bienal Del Fin del Mundo (Mar del Plata, Argentina, 2014), After de Void (Ministry of Nomadads, Edison House, London, 2013), Art de la Grande ile des Caraibes (Le Manoir de Cologny Cultural Center, Ginebra, Switzerland, 2013) 50 in the 50’ (La Acacia Gallery, Habana, 2011), Knowing how to shoot, and shooting well (Villa Manuela Gallery, Habana, 2011), Cuban women artists (Center for Cuban Studies, New York, 2010).
Her most recent events and exhibitions were: Fragments of Memory (Galerie Isabelle Lesmeister, Regensburg, Germany 2021). Islas Apothiki Art House and Islad Cultura (Paros, Greece, 2021) In 2020 she participatet in an Artist talk to students at Fairfield University Museum Connecticut. She was part of the 2019 Residency at Djerassi Resident Artists, Woodside, California, United States. As a Cuban artists she was selected for the residence Habana Cultura sponsored by Havana Club (2012). Her most relevant solo exhibitions among others are: Flashback in collaboration with Andres Levin (ArteMorfosis Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland, 2018), Flotabilidad – Buoyancy – (Habana Gallery, Cuba, 2018), Marea Alta – High Tide – (Mitte Gallerie, Callao, Peru, 2017), Diario de viaje – Voyage Diary – (CO Gallery, Santiago de Chile, Chile, 2017), Patria – Homeland –, 12th Biennial of Havana (Villa Manuela, Cuba, 2015), Reverso – Reverse – (Tomás y Valientes Art Center, Madrid, Spain, 2013), Disappearance (Enlace Gallery, Lima, Peru, 2013), Situación Límite – Limit Situation – (Raquel Ponce Gallery, Madrid, Spain, 2013), Reunificación Familiar – Family Reunion –, Collateral to the 11th Biennial of Havana (Morro- Cabaña, 2012), Today my voice has sound (Villa Manuela Gallery, Havana, 2012). Her work is part of important public and private collections like: the Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA), Tampa’s Museum of Contemporary Art, the United States, CIFO Foundation. Cisnero Fontanals, the United States, the Gilbert Brownstone Foundation, France, the Ministry of Nomads, the United Kingdom.