Global Spanish Marks Close of 'Fuego Eterno' Exhibition with Party, Series of Events

The Department of Art and the Global Spanish Initiative celebrated the final day of the “Fuego Eterno: Soberanías Visuales” exhibition with a closing reception and party at the Ruffin Gallery on Oct. 10.

The Friday night party, bringing together the exhibition’s artists, scholars and the larger community for one last opportunity to view the collected works of artists from across borders, organized by guest curator Erika Hirugami, wrapped a week of Global Spanish events on Grounds.

“This project under the Global Spanish Initiative expanded into various convenings led by an artistic spirit to address urgent topics of our times,” said Assoc. Prof. Federico Cuatlacuatl, one of the exhibition’s featured artists. “This exhibition invited a wide range of medium and forms of art including painting, sculpture, performance, video, installation and photos. We look forward to continuing our collective endeavors in these gestures of love as resistance and building solidarity through knowledge sharing and kinship beyond borders.”

A new interdisciplinary project at UVA, the Global Spanish Initiative is dedicated to research and creative collaborations across the Spanish-speaking world. The closing of the “Fuego Eterno” exhibition was coordinated with other academic and cultural events at UVA that week, including an Oct. 9 art symposium hosted by the Global Spanish Initiative and UVA Arts, and, as part of the A&S Dean’s Office’s “Enabling Difficulty Conversations” series, an Oct. 9 panel discussion titled “Art, Migration and the Power of Sovereignty,” moderated by Paulina Ochoa Espejo, UVA’s John L. Nau III Professor of the History and Principles of Democracy.

“The ‘Fuego Eterno’ exhibition, the associated symposium and the ‘Enabling Difficulty Conversations’ panel “offered ample evidence the urgency of these kinds of conversations around migration, sovereignty, language, heritage, belonging, history, memory, creativity, and love,” said Sam Amago, UVA’s William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Spanish and director of the Global Spanish Initiative. “We are grateful to the Dean of Arts and Sciences for making these kinds of events possible, and we are excited to continue the conversation next year with the partnership of our colleague Paulina Ochoa.”

You can learn more about the Global Spanish Initiative and upcoming events it’s sponsoring here.

More information on the complete list of Global Spanish program events this week, including Friday’s closing reception and party for the “Fuego Eterno” exhibition can be found here.