Kcho Exhibition Inaugurated at the Vatican

November 12, 2023

The exhibition A New World, by Cuban painter and engraver Alexis Leyva (Kcho), opened today to the public at the Palazzo de la Cancellería of the Vatican, reflects the artist's dreams of contributing to a better future.

"The most important thing for a creator is to have increasing awareness of what our role is and to subordinate individuality to something greater," Kcho said in statements to Prensa Latina, and emphasized that this new exhibition responds to the call made by Pope Francis on June 23 of this year, to put art at the service of humanity.

The presentation, which from this Sunday until November 26 can be visited in that Renaissance palace, is sponsored by the Cuban embassy to the Holy See and the Dicastery for Culture and Education of the Vatican, with the participation of curator Eriberto Bettini.

At the inaugural ceremony, held on the evening of last Saturday, Cuban ambassador René Mujica highlighted the presence of Cardinal Agostino Marchetto, Monsignor Javier Domingo Fernández, head of Protocol of the Secretariat of State and Angélica Ferreira, representing the Dicastery for Education and Culture.

This new exhibition responds to the call made by Pope Francis on June 23 of this year, to put art at the service of humanity. Photo: Prensa Latina.

Also present were Monsignor Lucio Adrián Ruiz, secretary of the Dicastery for Communications, as well as Andrea Monda, director of the newspaper L´Osservatore Romano, critic Luciano Caprile, Cuban ambassador to Italy, Mirta Granda, and members of the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See and Rome.

Mujica noted that this Kcho exhibition is an expression of the Cuban people's alignment with the ideas of Pope Francis, their concern for the solution of challenges that all countries, all cultures, all religions, all human beings face in these times of history.

"To solve such challenges we require brotherhood, fraternity, solidarity, and communication," said the diplomat, and Kcho's artistic contribution, to which is added his social and humanitarian work, is a vital expression of those values.

Precisely, the Cuban artist told Prensa Latina that "30 years ago I was very happy when I painted, but with the passage of time, now I am even happier building a school, putting a roof on a house," and added that "that fulfills me, it gives me a happiness I had never experienced before."

In his remarks to those present, he referred to the importance that this social work has for him, and symbolically he put on a yellow construction helmet, which for the first time he is carrying outside the borders of his country and which for the past 18 years has accompanied him in his work of repairing homes, schools, alongside his people.

Regarding this exhibition, Bettini told Prensa Latina that this is the third Kcho exhibition at the Holy See, and noted that almost 10 years have passed since the first one in 2014, "when we began to promote Cuban art in Italy and in this Vatican space, something very important and positive."

For his part, renowned art critic Luciano Caprile highlighted in statements to the press agency the value of this Kcho exhibition at the Holy See "that symbolizes hope, something very important in these moments as it responds to the Pope's call for artists to contribute with their works in a scenario of wars."

"This exhibition is a contribution to peace, to the search for a better life, for a new world, because finding hope is something very important for everyone," Caprile stated.