This is an historic event for Central America and the Caribbean islands: an in-person XR creation lab (virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, video 360, video games, metaverse, AI and virtual worlds) in the city of Havana, Cuba, for 16 local artists and creators.
The workshop will take place for 6 days, from December 11th to 16th, 2023, accompanied by online talks prior to December 11. Participants will have access to the workshop for free, with Latin American and European experts that include Marta Ordeig and Mar Gimeno (Garage Stories – Spain), Damián Turkieh (Realidad 360 – Argentina) plus hottest Cuban immersive talents.
“CUBAVERSO” has been launched by NEWMENstudio, a creative studio specialized in immersive technologies based in Cuba, whose XR film “Bembé ” was selected in 2020, as part of the New Frontier of the prestigious Sundance Film Festival. The founders of the studio Marcos Louit and Patricia Diaz along with the Argentine Gabriel Giandinoto, Virtuality ́s Content Manager for Latam, originated the concept and they will coordinate the event.
These scholarships for Cuban XR ecosystem is promoted by Rebirth Embassy- Tercer Paraiso Cuba, Cittadellarte Fondazione Pistoletto, the network of National Institutes of Culture of the European Union (EUNIC) Cuba cluster, through the “Europe Caribbean Co-creation Hub” project and the Cultural Department of the Spanish Embassy in Cuba, within the Scientific Diplomacy program of the International Development Cooperation Agency (AECID).
The event has also partnered with A+, the teenagers center at Old Havana, the Office of Havana’s Historian, and Galleria Continua. It will be opened by an introductory master class of Michelangelo Pistolleto about the use of art and technology as a tool for social transformation. Participants will also have the opportunity to interact with the art of Julio Le Parc (one of the fathers of immersive arts) as part of the gallery’s programming.
The Cubaverse carries forward the spirit of magical realism of the Nobel Prize winner for literature, the writer Gabriel García Márquez, to transform it into the “magical virtualism” of Latin America. In the country he also created the International Film School together with the artist Fernando Birri.
