5846_015_rgb--imatge-ayuda-humanitaria 5846_011_pub--imatge-ayuda-humanitaria 5846_013_pub--imatge-ayuda-humanitaria 5846_014_pub--imatge-ayuda-humanitaria 5846_009_pub--imatge-ayuda-humanitaria
5846_015_rgb--imatge-ayuda-humanitaria
Núria Güell
Ayuda humanitaria
Humanitarian Aid
2008 - 2013
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‘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.
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The texts of the MACBA web draw on previous documentation. Please let us know if you find any errors.
original title
Ayuda humanitaria
year of acquisition
2020
type of object
Media installation
dimensions
Variable dimensions
Copyright
© Núria Güell
registration number
R.5846
date
2008 - 2013
fonds
MACBA Collection. Government of Catalonia long-term loan
media
Various materials
credits
MACBA Collection. Government of Catalonia long-term loan. National Collection of Contemporary Art
original title
Ayuda humanitaria
registration number
R.5846
date
2008 - 2013
year of acquisition
2020
fonds
MACBA Collection. Government of Catalonia long-term loan
type of object
Media installation
media
Various materials
dimensions
Variable dimensions
credits
MACBA Collection. Government of Catalonia long-term loan. National Collection of Contemporary Art
Copyright
© Núria Güell
Marriage
Migration (Population)
Tourism
Cuba
Performance art

images

5 images
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