A Conversation with Carlos Martiel and Vivian Crockett

Join us for a very special conversation in conjuction with our newest exhibition with artist Carlos Martiel and New York–based independent researcher, scholar, and curator Vivian Crockett as they discuss Martiel’s newest piece “Intruder (America)” in relationship to Martiel’s long-term performance practice and its themes.

Intruder (America) is the first of two iterations of a new performance by Cuban artist Carlos Martiel. The piece derives its inspiration from the current migratory crisis that has quickly intensified and exacerbated in the United States after the election of Donald Trump. Within this context, Crockett and Martiel will examine how themes such as migration, displacement, systemic violence, anti-black racism and xenophobia on global and nationally specific scales, among others, have informed Martiel’s practice and tactics of engagement.
 
This conversation will be conducted in English and Spanish.
 
BIOGRAPHY
 
Carlos Martiel (born 1989, Havana). He Lives and works in New York and Havana. He graduated in 2009 from the National Academy of Fine Arts “San Alejandro,” in Havana. Between the years 2008-2010, he studied in the Cátedra Arte de Conducta, directed by the artist Tania Bruguera. Martiel’s works have been included in: 57th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy; Casablanca Biennale, Casablanca, Morocco; Biennial “La Otra”, Bogotá, Colombia; Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool, United Kingdom; Pontevedra Biennial, Galicia, Spain; Havana Biennial, Havana, Cuba. He has had performances at Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA; The Museum of Fine Arts Houston (MFAH), Houston, USA; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo del Zulia (MACZUL), Maracaibo, Venezuela; Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Italy; Robert Miller Gallery, New York, USA; Nitsch Museum, Naples, Italy. He has received several awards, including the Franklin Furnace Fund in New York, USA, 2016; “CIFOS Grants & Commissions Program Award” in Miami, USA, 2014; “Arte Laguna” in Venice, Italy, 2013. His work has been exhibited at The Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA), Long Beach, USA; Zisa Zona Arti Contemporanee (ZAC), Palermo, Italy; Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum, Miami, USA; Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece; National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba; Tornielli Museum, Ameno, Italy; Museum of Modern Art of Buenos Aires, Argentina; among others.
 
Vivian Crockett is a New York–based independent researcher, scholar, and curator focusing largely on art of African diasporas, (Afro)Latinx diasporas, and Latin America at the varied intersections of race, gender, and queer theory. She is a PhD candidate in art history at Columbia University whose dissertation examines artistic practices and discourses in Brazil in the sixties and seventies. Her scholarly and cultural work seeks to assert a radically political analysis of modern and contemporary art and to foster the remembrance and visioning of cultural spaces and practices that merge a commitment to artistic and cultural production with sociopolitical justice and collective liberation. She is the 2017–18 Mellon Museum Research Consortium Fellow in Media and Performance Art at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.