Ka’añaar Opening
(Image Factory remarks)
yasser musa
26 July 2019
Good Morning. Welcome to the Image Factory.
THANKS: I wanted to start my brief presentation with thanks. I thank Pamela Musa and Gilvano Swasey who have been Factory workers since June 1995, and has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the many projects, actions and ideas presented over the past 24 years. I thank sista YaYa Marin Coleman and the UBAD Educational Foundation and by extension the African and Indigenous Library for their genuine collaboration. I thank Ambassador Lissette Perez Perez of Cuba to Belize for her unwavering support and collaborative spirit. I thank brother Orestes Hernandez for his true attitude of Solidarity and friendship to the last detail in all our projects. I thank NICH, Sapna Budhrani, president, Ema Lewis from the Garifuna Gulisi Museum, Debra Wilkes from the Corozal House of Culture, Cindey Rivero from the Banquitas House of Culture, Illiana Romero from the Santa Elena and San Ignacio House of Culture, Ingrid Can from the Benque House of Culture. And I thank Zakir Husman from Aligraphics for his technical skill in getting all the printed matter to such a strong standard.
Twenty four years ago, almost to the day, this space opened with the intention to push forward a simple idea, that our creativity is worth celebrating and our ideas worth spreading. It is not by accident or coincidence that Ka’añaar is the first major art action toward our 25th anniversary celebration which will be June 2020.
THIS EXHIBITION is a battle of ideas. And from now until whenever, we will continue to fight in a spirit of collaboration and cooperation.
THE WORD Ka’añaar is an invented word, the joining of the Yucatecan Maya word for 2 which is Ka’a and the Wolof, Senegalese, African word for 2 which is ñaar.
The ART: The graphic works you see presented today has two sets of origins. One, in the 1960s after the triumph of the Cuban revolution there was a focused effort by the state to use graphic design to reach and educate the grassroots people whether to promote literacy for all or medial campaigns and awareness. Graphic design for Cuba has its origins as a tool of liberation. In Belize there is a period from the late 1970s that has not yet been properly analyzed and developed in our national narrative, and that is how we used graphic design for nation building. It was the artist Joan Duran who designed the famous 21st September poster we see recycled every year in September, but there are many other designs involving national dignity, sovereignty and social consciousness that remain hidden.
THE ARTISTS: So today I offer my congratulations to Falco and Lito who continue in the fight to use art as an instrument of our mental liberation and consciousness building. More than ever, in this age of digital imperialism, we the artists must take on the responsibility of translating the terror of thoughts being imposed on us.
SOLIDARITY: In 2018, 191 nations said unBLOCK Cuba. And today we the artists of Belize say unBLOCK Cuba.
22 years in a row the UN General Assembly has voted against the US BLOCKADE of Cuba, each time announcing to the world that not only is it a violation of the UN charter and international LAW, but that it represents one of the world’s most inhuman action that is unfair, severe and prolonged.
And at this very precise moment our sisters and brothers in Cuba face another economic hurricane the USA Helms Burton law, which is one more action of severe pressure that is totally against the sovereignty and self-determination of CUBA and again a total violation of international law.
We the artists of Belize stand in full solidarity with Cuba. We are forever in gratitude to Cuba because at the birth of our nation it was Cuba who championed the cause of Belize’s right for Independence in the world especially inside the Americas, our hemispheric home.