ANNOUNCING THE WINNER OF THE FIRST RESIDENCY PROGRAM AT THE ARCHIVES IN RENNES

On September 17, 2024, AICA International launched a call for applications in partnership with the Archives de la Critique d’Art (ACA) for a research grant on its history and various national sections. This grant was open to all members of AICA International who wished to travel to Rennes to conduct research at the archives. It is intended to encourage the exploration and development of AICA International’s archives, which include documents related to congresses and general assemblies held in France and abroad from 1948 to 2009 (programs, memorandums, correspondence, participants’ papers, minutes), as well as materials on the work of committees and the organization and management of the association (accounting and administrative documents, budgets, and files from Presidents and Secretary Generals). The call was open until November 17, and we received 13 applications.

The jury—Malgorzata Kazmierczak, President of AICA International; Marie Tchernia Blanchart, Director of the Archives de la Critique d’Art; and Antje Kramer Mallordy, former Director of the Archives de la Critique d’Art—is pleased to announce that Samuel Hernández Dominicis has been selected as the winner of the first edition of the Residency Program at the Archives de la Critique d’Art in Rennes. A distinguished researcher, curator, and art critic, Hernández Dominicis brings a wealth of expertise to this residency, where he will explore the history of AICA’s Cuban chapter and its role in the global art criticism landscape.

About the Research

According to Merino Acosta, the beginnings and development of AICA’s Cuban chapter in the national context could be considered a history of silence. More than 70 years of existence have not produced any relevant research on AICA’s relations with the Cuban art criticism scene or on the accidental life of the chapter and its influence in the Cuban cultural field. Thanks to the important work of the Archives de la critique d’art (ACA), this situation may now change. Using the institution's resources, this project focuses on compiling the history of the Cuban chapter, characterizing Cuba's participation in AICA Congresses, and exploring the cultural relations established with Cuba through events such as the Paris Biennale and the Havana Biennial. The findings aim to produce thematic texts, which may eventually become a book by incorporating a review of other archives in Cuba. Additionally, the project includes the design of a conference to be presented to AICA Cuba members, as well as a reflection on the trajectory of AICA’s Cuban chapter..

About Samuel Hernández Dominicis

Samuel Hernández Dominicis (Havana, Cuba, 1987): Graduated in Art History from the University of Havana (2011) and earned a master’s in Art Studies from the Ibero-American University of Mexico (2019). Researcher, teacher, curator, and art critic. He worked as an ArteSur magazine editor at Sello Arte Cubano Ediciones and was part of the team that established the Institutional Collection of the Consejo Nacional de las Artes Plásticas (CNAP). He also served as Technical Deputy Director at the Centro de Desarrollo de las Artes Visuales (CDAV) and as Visual Arts Advisor in the National Directorate of the Hermanos Saíz Association (AHS).

In recent years, his research has focused on the construction of "the people" and "the enemy" as discursive categories in populist and totalitarian processes. He is a member of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) and its Cuba Section’s executive staff, as well as the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC) and the Group of Studies on Public Art in Latin America (GEAP Latin America), where he coordinates the Cuban homologous group.

He is a PhD candidate in the Modern Literature program at the Ibero-American University of Mexico, where he researches male homosexual subjectivity in Cuban literary fiction. At the same time, he teaches at the Instituto de Cultura Superior (ICS) and Centro de Estudios Visuales (CEVI). He was recently elected President of the Cuban Chapter of AICA.

We congratulate Samuel Hernández Dominicis on this achievement and look forward to the insights his research will bring!