(from the underwater mountains fire makes islands)
October 13, 2023–March 3, 2024
KADIST San Francisco: October 13, 2023–February 17, 2024
Opening hours: Wednesday–Saturday, 12–5pm
Delfina Foundation, London: January 24, 2024–March 10, 2024
Opening: January 23, 2024, 7–9pm
Opening hours: Monday–Sunday, 12–6pm
KADIST San Francisco and Delfina Foundation are pleased to present iterations of de montañas submarinas el fuego hace islas (from the underwater mountains fire makes islands). The unfolding exhibitions across the institutions explore the concept of freedom through sensory experiences, alternate and altered realities, and interspecies relationships between human and non-human. Featuring over a dozen international artists and collectives, and new commissions from 11 countries including Ghana, Peru, Myanmar, Brazil, and the Dominican Republic. The exhibition unfolds over three rotations at KADIST San Francisco with a concurrent instantiation at Delfina Foundation, asking the question: how does art affect our bodies and perception and contribute to and alter our future?
Through constellations of artworks installed in constant movement, Dominican Republic-based guest curator Yina Jiménez Suriel investigates the idea of freedom inspired by the tools and knowledge from communities that have desired liberation from the Western imagination. The exhibition is the outcome of an ongoing research project la historia de la montañas (the history of the mountains) that Jiménez Suriel began in 2019 and follows its first iteration in partnership with Pivô, São Paulo, in 2021 and was supported by residencies at Pivô and KADIST San Francisco. An extension of de montañas submarinas el fuego hace islas will take place at Delfina Foundation, London in January 2024, following Jiménez Suriel’s residency in 2022.
Jo-ey Tang, KADIST San Francisco Director reflects on the exhibition: “Yina Jiménez Suriel is one of the most vital curatorial voices emerging out of the Caribbean today. She brings her cross-cultural and global sensibility to KADIST and she has conceived an innovative exhibitionary strategy that redefines and expands audience engagement, amplified through programming in San Francisco, Berkeley, and Manila, the Philippines. The exhibition is exemplary of KADIST’s mission in supporting artists and curators through our signature residency program, infusing the San Francisco Bay Area art scene with international artists drawn from the KADIST collection and making their US or West Coast debut, and addressing pressing social and political issues and cultivating arts ecologies on a global scale.”
Aaron Cezar, Delfina Foundation Director: “Delfina Foundation’s residencies support practitioners to initiate and experiment with new ideas—or develop existing ones. Whilst in residence at Delfina in 2022, Yina Jiménez Suriel took the opportunity to focus on her long-term curatorial research into emancipation and the building of imagination. It is with great anticipation that in early 2024 as part of our exhibitions programme, we will be able to share a manifestation of this rhizomatic project with audiences in London.”
de montañas submarinas el fuego hace islas considers the relationships between the process of emancipation, the perceptual system of the human species, the expansion of human subjectivities, and the creation of new imaginaries.
Artists (KADIST San Francisco)
Rotation #1—Repetition: Jonas Van & Juno B, Jes Fan, Duto Hardono, arquivo mangue, Dalissa Montes de Oca, Angela Su, Maria Taniguchi
Rotation #2—To fugue: Cross Lypka, Madeline Jiménez Santil, Cathy Lu, Dalissa Montes de Oca, Karthik Pandian, Moe Satt, Angela Su
Rotation #3—Transmutation: Cross Lypka, Jes Fan, Duto Hardono, Cathy Lu, Rodney McMillian, Phi Phi Oanh
Learn more about upcoming public programs at KADIST here.
A bilingual English and Spanish reader, co-published with Sming Sming Books, with the support of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, University of California, Berkeley will be available in February 2024. It will also be released digitally in three parts alongside each exhibition rotation and available for download and will culminate in a printed reader. With contributions by Dénètem Touam Bona, Félix Servio Ducoudray, Yina Jiménez Suriel, Ailton Krenak, Marilia Lourerio, José Maceda, Ariana Nuala, Suely Rolnik, and Jo-ey Tang.
Artists (Delfina Foundation)
biarritzzz, Duto Hardono, Thaís Espaillat Ureña, Vitória Cribb, and a new commission by Adjoa Armah.
The exhibition at Delfina Foundation is made possible through the support of its Network of Latin America and the Caribbean Patrons. A public programme will accompany the exhibition at Delfina Foundation. Details will be released in the new year.
