The artist Yubo Fernández presents ‘Cigua Palmera’, an “interior and exterior” flight of art, jazz and haute couture

The Embassy of the Dominican Republic to the Kingdom of Spain and the multidisciplinary artist Yubo Fernández presented this Monday in Madrid the exhibition ‘Cigua Palmera: Cartography of flight’, a project that has been defined as “an interior and exterior flight” around the endemic bird (Cigua Palmera is the national bird of the Dominican Republic) and that fuses plastic art, jazz and haute couture.

“The palm cigua is a bird that does not migrate and only exists on the island. It is something contrary in a country with so much migration,” Fernández explained. From that idea, the Dominican artist develops a poetic discourse about “internal migration” – a journey that human beings make through emotions and the subconscious – in her 30 canvases and three sculptures exhibited until February 15 at the Melía Casa de las Artes Hotel.

Among the works on display, two pieces stand out, shortlisted for the Reina Sofía Prize for Painting and Sculpture, one about the Cigua and the other about some “abstract” Meninas. “We migrate with our emotions and express the desire for freedom in many ways,” he stated.

The exhibition is curated by Julian Kundhart and promoted by the Dominican diplomatic mission and stands as an avant-garde sensory experience that transcends the conventional exhibition to explore the inner journey of the human being through a dialogue between various artistic disciplines.

‘Cigua Palmera’ is a traveling exhibition that began in New York, continues now in Madrid and will continue its journey through cities such as Italy, Germany and Belgium. The artist plans to close the journey in the Dominican Republic, with a large final exhibition at an airport in the country.

The proposal also includes a strong musical and performative component. The room is accompanied by compositions by Dominican Luis McDougal, trained at Berklee, who has created a fusion of merengue, jazz and bachata, including a piece also titled ‘Cigua Palmera’.

The exhibition is completed with a costume intervened pictorially by Fernández and designed by the international creator Giannina Azar, responsible for outfits for figures such as Jennifer Lopez, Beyoncé or Gloria Estefan, and who thus adds fashion to the visual and sound universe of the exhibition.