Coming up on August 24, 2019, Iris PhotoCollective’s new ArtSpace opens its inaugural exhibition Paradise Lost in Nostalgia. Iris PhotoCollective ArtSpace is a gallery dedicated to exploring and documenting the relationship of people of color to the world, and this exhibition features photos from Iris photographers and some of our key collaborators. Join us!
About Paradise Lost in Nostalgia:
In March of 2019, seven photojournalists traveled to Havana to document the daily lives of Cubans. Five of these photographers had been to the island multiple times, and two were visiting for the first time.
On assignment for Iris PhotoCollective’s Havana/Haiti project, the photographers began with no specific goal. Yet all observed and documented a clear duality: an authentic Cuba, layered at every turn with manufactured nostalgia.
A product of a growing tourist economy, nostalgia looms in person-to-person transactions and is sold by the government to foreign visitors. It can be observed in the vintage cars, decaying architecture, familiar music, and images fading on walls throughout the city.
While this version of Cuba can be unsatisfying, like a tourist trap, nostalgia serves a key purpose. It is a practical, entrepreneurial way to earn hard tourist currencies.
Ironically, the effort to stop time and preserve the past has brought great change to life in Havana. The photographs in this exhibition aim to document the complexities and idiosyncracies of life in Havana today.
Paradise Lost in Nostalgia bears witness to collisions and intersections between the authentic Cuba and the tourist façade. Simultaneously, the exhibition explores how Cubans are piecing a life together with what they have.
We want to thank our donors, including the Knight Foundation and the Green Foundation, for their generous support. And to all the folks who made this exhibition and the ArtSpace possible, thank you, and welcome!
Paradise Lost in Nostalgia
Curated by Carl Juste
Iris PhotoCollective ArtSpace
225 NE 59th Street, Miami FL
irisphotocollective.com
August 24 – October 10, 2019
Opening: August 24, 2019 at 7pm