What is the role of an artist? | A conversation with Manuel Piña

Manuel Piña’s work invites us to rethink what art is, how it is diffused and what the role of an artist is. The questions that result from experiencing his work start from the way we communicate about his work. “Resisting cultural assimilation has become central to my practice and resulted in a very free (yet unresolved) relationship with images and mediums; the gallery and museum systems. As a teacher, I am interested in reimagining the ancestral role of the artist as a spiritual agent of the community in the conditions of the 21st century” – Manuel Piña About the artist: Was born in La Habana, Cuba, 1958. lives and works in Vancouver. Manuel Piña B is an artist, pedagog, and social and spiritual activist. His research adopts spirituality+technology as a key intra relation to elucidate present realities and challenges, and imagine new forms of life and Justice. His work explores digital imaging technologies and transmedia languages to investigate their role in the creation of our presents, and their generative potentials to enable new sensibilities, ways of life and community. Piña is co-founder of the Newtribes School, an online and land-based global network of healers, teachers and cultural and software activists working towards the preservation and dissemination of ancestral wisdoms and languages from around the globe. Piña was born in Havana. Graduated as a mechanical engineer in Vladimir, Russia, in 1983. Began exhibiting his art in 1992. He has been a professor at AHVA since 2004. His artwork has been exhibited in the Americas and Europe including the Havana Biennale, the Estambul Biennale, Kunsthalle Vienna, Grey Gallery, N.Y., LACMA, U.S.A., Dorsky Gallery, N.Y., DAROS Museum, Zurich.