Belleza y Felicidad and the Argentinean Avant-Garde:
A conversation with Cecilia Pavón, organized by translator Stuart Krimko
Wednesday, April 20th, 7 p.m.
Museum of Contemporary Art
Joan Lehman Building
770 NE 125th St
North Miami, FL 33161

Have you ever heard of Belleza y Felicidad?

Initiated in 1999, Belleza (as it’s affectionately known) is a creation of the Argentinean artists/poets Cecilia Pavón and Fernanda Laguna and took its original form as an art gallery in Buenos Aires. Within the physical and conceptual limits of this imaginative cultural space, exhibitions were held, readings were given, and improvised events and projects of all stripes were put into action.

During its first years, the gallery regularly issued La revista de Belleza y Felicidad, a newsprint magazine featuring artwork, poems, reviews of exhibitions at other venues, advertisements, and experimental design. The publication read like a town newspaper for a fluid community founded on poetic ideals. Simultaneously, a small press was established under the Belleza umbrella. Though the gallery itself closed in 2007 , the press continues putting out small, lovingly crafted photocopied editions of fiction and poetry by some of Argentina’s most forward-thinking writers. The artworks and books generated by its participants, and especially those made by Laguna and Pavón, draw as much from youth movements as they do from earlier examples of avant-garde artistic practice.

This Wednesday, Pavón and her American translator, the poet Stuart Krimko, will present the first North American program devoted to the projects and activities of Belleza y Felicidad. The talk is generously hosted by the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami as part of their “Spotlight” series. Admission to the presentation is free for members; $5 for non-members.