Exhibition: “Cuba Dispersa (Cuba Dispersed)”
Cranbrook Art Museum
Exhibition: “Cuba Dispersa (Cuba Dispersed)” is on view now at Cranbrook Art Museum through September 1, 2024.
Poster redesign made in 2021 as a result of the arbitrary detention of the artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara. The purpose was to make the denouncement in social networks.
Laura Mott (curator):
“Libertad Para Luis Manuel (Freedom for Luis Manuel),” by Liliam Dooley is a powerful visual statement that connects two struggles for justice across time and space.
Dooley’s poster reimagines Félix Beltrán’s iconic 1971 poster of Angela Davis, a Civil Rights activist who was wrongfully imprisoned in the United States, with the addition of the face of Cuban artist and political prisoner Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara.
In 2021, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara led the San Isidro Movement, a group of artists and intellectuals protesting against the Cuban government’s suppression of artistic freedom. His activism, which included challenging societal norms and advocating for freedom of expression, led to his imprisonment. Alcántara is currently serving a five-year sentence for the vague crime of “insulting national symbols.”
Félix Beltrán’s original poster of Angela Davis became a symbol of resistance and solidarity during a time when Davis herself was imprisoned in the United States. Beltrán’s poster, with its bold design and compelling imagery, rallied global support for Davis and emphasized the fight against systemic oppression.
By juxtaposing Alcántara’s face onto this historic poster, Dooley not only pays homage to Beltrán’s work but also underscores the enduring relevance of these struggles.
Article about the whole exhibition: A Modernist Regime: Cuban Mid-Century Design:
Belmont Freeman, ““There Is Design in Everything”,” Places Journal, August 2024. Accessed 29 Aug 2024.
Left: Original poster, Félix Beltrán, 1971 “Libertad para Angela Davis”. Right: Redesign by Liliam Dooley 2021 “Libertad para Luis Manuel”
Photo by P.D. Rearick. Courtesy Cranbrook Art Museum
Photo by P.D. Rearick. Courtesy Cranbrook Art Museum