Download Catalogue Essay by María Escalona

El agua entre nosotros es un ser (“The Water Between Us is a Being”)

As Cuba's borders cross over the sea, over generations, over languages- how do we sing lost songs? Born in Miami to recent Cuban immigrants, my upbringing has given me the gift of seeing the porosity and materiality of distance, memory, and language. I am an artist that reflects on the multifaceted story of Cuba’s diasporas through an ecocritical study of water’s symbolic and tactile agency within Cuba’s history. My research practice informs a poetic reflection of these narratives, taking the form of text, sculptures, performance, and video. My most recent projects focus on the 90’s balsero crisis, the story of my father’s crossing of the sea, and the colloquial meaning of the waters between the coasts of Miami and Cuba as the community ambulates this space in the present day. 

About the artist

Carolina Larrosa is currently completing a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Intermedia at Concordia University, located in Tiohtià:ke (Montréal). She has had her work shown across The United States and Canada, at events such as the Satellite Arts Festival in Miami and various student-run exhibitions at Concordia University. In the summer of 2020, Carolina was a recipient of the Concordia Undergraduate Student Research Award, which funded the continuation of her research and creation practice in Cuban studies. She is currently a coordinator at the Galerie VAV Gallery, a non-profit student organization at Concordia which is a platform and gallery space that exhibits and supports student projects. As her time at Concordia comes to a close, Carolina is working to continue developing her research projects in graduate school and in her own community.