Visiting Artist Leandro Soto
incorporates elements of Afro-Cuban mythology into his theatrical and
fine art works.
W hen internationally acclaimed artist and designer Leandro Soto left Cuba for the U.S. six years ago, a rich pantheon of gods and goddesses from his native land came with him. Although the Marxist Cuban government suppresses indigenous culture, Afro-Cuban mythology continues to occupy a central place in Soto's dreams, heart, and art as he works in exile. While living in America, Soto has updated the ancient mythology, making room for mainstays of U.S. pop culture--from Hershey's Kisses to Mickey Mouse--in the mixed-media environments he creates. Just don't ask Soto, currently a visiting (and shivering) artist in MHC's department of theatre arts, about winter in South Hadley. Clearly, Obbatala, the Afro-Cuban god of winter, is one deity Soto can live without.
Both a fine artist and a set designer, Soto first came to Mount Holyoke in March 1998 to exhibit Altar to Yemaya, an installation sponsored by La Unidad; he was invited to return for 1998 - 99 to teach one class each semester and design threatre productions. Yemaya is the Afro-Cuban equivalent of the Greek god Poseidon. She rules islands, oceans, ships, beaches, dreams, the unconscious, and prophecies. Yemaya is also serving as inspiration for Soto's design of Quabbin Dance, a play to be performed here this semester. Soto envisions bringing a "Cuban feeling" and a sense of "fragmented realism" to the show by turning the theatre into Yemaya's realm, an aqueous environment and floating space where water becomes a metaphor for feelings and memories.
Soto's fine art is also theatrical; his installations are productions that involve objects scattered on the floor and walls and may include video or sound to help create context, in addition to painted stage-like elements. In many of these works, he blends aspects of traditional Afro-Cuban culture with objects from the culture in which he is living; for example, plastic toys, photos of movie stars, and Coke cans in recent works and Mayan elements while he was working in Mexico. No matter what the cultural reference point, such elements become metaphors of beliefs. Art critic Giulio Blanc contends, "Soto's concerns transcend specific locales or traditions. He deals in archetypes and in the common spiritual threads of mankind."
Caribbean Crossroads, the class Soto is now teaching, has a waiting list; the artist is as enthusiastic about MHC students as they are about him. "They are the best students I have ever had," he says. Soto also stressed that he is "so excited" about the College's multicultural orientation and openness to incorporating Caribbean culture into the curriculum. Malea Jochim '02, a student in Soto's Visual Metaphors on the Stage class last semester who is now working with him on the Quabbin design, says, "Leandro's ideas are awesome. They are different from anything I've been exposed to in theatre before."
Soto's art has been shown in more than 150 exhibitions over the past twenty-five years in venues all over the world and is included in numerous museum and private collections. He has designed professional stage productions of works ranging from Le Petit Prince to A Midsummer Night's Dream and has lectured around the globe. Upcoming local exhibitions of Soto's work include an installation at Elms College, February 25 - March 18; at Amherst College, March 1 - 14; and at the Mill Street Gallery in Greenfield, March 26.
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