An exhibition titled “Ida y vuelta: experiencias de la migración en el arte puertorriqueño contemporáneo” [Roundtrip: Experiences of migration in contemporary Puerto Rican art] will open at the Museum of History, Anthropology and Art (MHAA) of the University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras (UPR-RP) on Tuesday, February 21, 2017, at 7:00pm.

The 18 participating artists are: Abdiel Segarra, ADÁL, Anabel Vázquez, Anaida Hernández, Antonio Martorell, Brenda Cruz, Carlos Ruiz-Valarino, Edra Soto, John Betancourt, José A. Ortiz Pagán, Marta Mabel Pérez, Mónica Félix, Nayda Collazo Llorens, Norma Villa Rivero, Osvaldo Budet, Pedro Vélez, Quintín Rivera Toro, and Víctor Vázquez.

This exhibition brings together eighteen artists who—through photography, painting, engraving, installations, and video, among other media—approach the current migration through their different interpretations of the phenomenon, in most cases formulated on the basis of their own lived experiences, whether they are reflecting on the years in which they lived outside of Puerto Rico or on this experience where they currently reside.

According to the UPR-RP press release, Dr. Laura Bravo, curator of the show and professor in the History of Art program at the UPR-RP, explains, “This exhibition addresses migration by presenting different perspectives of migration, starting with warnings of the risks involved in embarking on this complicated adventure, and focusing on the conflicts—especially those involving identity—that arise with coexistence in a geographical space that not the place of origin.”

The exhibition also shows, from the artists’ perspectives, how the economic and political crisis of the island has been one of the most evident triggers in the exponential increase of the numbers of Puerto Ricans who have left the island in recent years.

For original information (in Spanish), see press release at http://www.upr.edu/exhibicion-ida-y-vuelta-experiencias-de-la-migracion-en-el-arte-puertorriqueno-contemporaneo/