Museo de Arte y Diseño
Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara (b. 1987, Havana) is a Cuban performance artist and activist now based in Miami, Florida. After the Cuban government issued Decree 349 in 2018, a law that allows government officials to forcibly censor art, Alcántara co-founded the Movimiento San Isidro (the San Isidro Movement) to advocate for freedom of expression in Cuba. Through the years, Alcántara shined a light on human rights violations affecting creative communities in Cuba, creating performance pieces and participating in protests that, in 2021, led to a five-year jail sentence.
Alcántara was released during the summer of 2026, and on July 18, 2026, he arrived in Miami. This exhibition of Alcántara’s work, which begins in Freedom Hall, takes its title from the artist’s poem. Debuting a selection of drawings made while in prison in Guanajay, Cuba, this presentation offers a glimpse into Alcántara’s compulsive, meditative, and illuminatory practice. For the artist, drawing became a survival exercise. It helped him organize time, articulate his thoughts, and process his experiences of surveillance in Cuba and confinement in prison.
The original iteration of this project debuted on August 14, 2026. An abbreviated presentation is now on view on the second floor of the Freedom Tower.
