Ayuda humanitaria, 2008-2013
‘At the time (2008), the only option Cubans had to leave the country legally was to make a tourist man or woman fall in love with them and marry him or her. Love had become a kind of passport to freedom – or to the illusion of freedom. (...)
My plan was to follow the same pattern. I would marry a Cuban man; I would give him the means to obtain the coveted papers and permits to leave the country in exchange for being able to use him as a work of art. I would use love to fool Cuban and Spanish bureaucracy. This is how the Humanitarian Aid project was born.
With that in mind, I organised a kind of public competition in which I offered to marry the Cuban man who wrote me “the most beautiful love letter in the world” […] A jury made up of three Cuban prostitutes would pick the winning letter. [...] Once he acquired Spanish nationality, we would divorce in accordance with the agreed terms and conditions. In the event of the work being sold, the profits would be divided equally.’
Núria Güell, from the Humanitarian Aid project.
After receiving more than 30 letters, Núria Güell and Yordanis married in a civil ceremony in Havana in 2009, before travelling to Spain.
Technical details
- Original title:
- Ayuda humanitaria
- Registration number:
- 5846
- Artist:
- Güell, Núria
- Date created:
- 2008-2013
- Date acquired:
- 2020
- Fonds:
- MACBA Collection. Government of Catalonia long-term loan
- Object type:
- Media installation
- Media:
- Various materials
- Dimensions:
- Variable dimensions
- Room:
- Meier Building, Level 1
- Credits:
- MACBA Collection. Government of Catalonia long-term loan. National Collection of Contemporary Art
- Copyright:
- © Núria Güell
- It has accessibility resources:
- No
The MACBA Collection features Catalan, Spanish and international art and, although it includes works from the 1920s onwards, its primary focus is on the period between the 1960s and the present.
For more information on the work or the artist, please consult MACBA's Library. To request a loan of the work, please write to colleccio [at] macba.cat.
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