Ian Deleón’s first solo exhibition, Cuba + Puetro Rico | Invitación a Volar, is currently on view at La Galería. Deleón has worked closely with the gallery curator to give his show a unique format that includes an open instillation, an extended run time, and a series of events that keep the gallery space active and free from mental stagnation. I was able to stop by the gallery the night before the show’s official opening reception, so the gallery still had an air of creativity in progress.
Ian Deleón in his in-gallery studio.
“Speak Softly Now…”
“The Influence of Sea Power Upon History”
“Invitación a Volar”
The show’s title piece, “Invitación a Volar” plays upon the duel translation of the show’s title. The phrase can mean literally, “an invitation to fly,” but it can also mean “an invitation to explode.” Here Deleón transforms a tropical vacation drink, the daiquiri, into a molotov cocktail – the potential for explosion lurking beneath the veneer of luxury. He describes the piece as a “decolonization revenge fantasy,” an expression of the desire to rewrite history through brute force.
Invitación a Volar is smart and sharply incisive. Deleón gives the viewer the tools and the information that they need and demands that they rethink and question what they thought they knew about the history of colonization, but at the end of the exhibition, the choice between passiveness and violence is in the viewers hands.