Rios Intermitentes 2019-2023

Located between the major tourist destinations of Havana and Varadero, the port city of Matanzas, Cuba, has a rich and complex cultural history, spanning a 19th-century sugar economy based on enslaved labor to a present-day contemporary art boom. Matanzas-born artist María Magdalena Campos Pons produced a wildly ambitious exhibition celebrating the cultural richness of her hometown. Ana María Velasco was one of the 64 artists included in this international venue. The Project concerned with intersections and connections, titling the event after the unique landscape of Matanzas, with its convergence of three rivers. This biennial was an opportunity to bring the work of artists and collectives who live and work in Matanzas into dialogue with dozens of artists invited from international locations, from the US to Pakistan.

An active event roster included talks, performances, processions, teachings, and ecological conservation activities (e.g. a reforestation tree-planting effort. Ríos Intermitentes was a true feat, all-hands-on-deck barn raising affair in which the designations of participants, staff, artists, and audiences seemed to blend.

Velasco’s participation in this ongoing project involved exhibiting her own work and teaching at the Escuela de Artes Plasticas de Matanzas, fostering profound cultural and personal exchange with the local community of Matnazas. Ana Maria was the first outside artist to be invited to teach in an educational art institution.