Claudia Claremi, 2024 CCI + WOPHA Fellowship, in residence at El Espacio 23 during September 2024

WOPHA / 09.10.2024

WOPHA, in partnership with the Caribbean Cultural Institute (CCI) at Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), is pleased to announce Claudia Claremi as the recipient of the 2024 CCI + WOPHA Fellowship. During her residency at El Espacio 23 in September 2024, Claremi will further develop her ongoing series La memoria de las frutas (The Memory of Fruits), a large-scale, research-based project that explores the sensory and emotional connections people have with fruit.

In this new chapter, Claremi will focus on the personal memories of Caribbean fruits from members of Miami’s Caribbean migrant communities. Using black-and-white 16mm film and 35mm photography, she will capture the empty hands of participants as they gesture while describing the fruits they remember. Accompanied by text fragments from their oral testimonies, the project illuminates the broader impact of industrial agriculture in the Caribbean, the migratory pathways of both fruit and people, the decreasing presence of fruit trees in Caribbean neighborhoods, and the challenges Caribbean people face in accessing fruits that were once abundant. Once completed, La memoria de las frutas will form a collective narrative addressing the structural causes of this cultural disconnection while restoring individual histories and honoring the fruits tied to them.

Call for Participation

Members of the Caribbean Diaspora are especially invited to contribute to this project by sharing their memories, personal stories, and experiences with Caribbean fruits. Artist Claudia Claremi will film participants’ hands in 16mm as they gesture and describe the fruits they remember. These personal accounts will become a significant part of her research during the fellowship. Participation is welcome in both Spanish and English. Interested individuals are encouraged to email to express their interest.

Open Studio

You are invited to an Open Studio at El Espacio 23 on September 27 from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm, where you will have the opportunity to meet Claudia Claremi, view her works in progress, and get a behind-the-scenes look at her creative process.
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The 2024 CCI + WOPHA Fellowship is presented by PAMM’s Caribbean Cultural Institute in collaboration with Women Photographers International Archive, with the support of El Espacio 23.

About the Artist

Claudia Claremi is an artist and filmmaker whose work combines video, analog film, photography, installation, sound, and text. She graduated from the International Film School of San Antonio de los Baños (Cuba) and the University of the Arts London (UK). Claremi has participated in artist residencies at Beta-Local (San Juan, PR), the Center for Artists in Residence at Matadero Madrid, the Visual Studies Workshop (Rochester, NY), and The Clemente (New York). Her films have been screened at festivals such as the Ann Arbor, Rotterdam, Raindance, Oberhausen, and Guadalajara. Her artwork has been exhibited at institutions including the Center for Visual Art at the Metropolitan State University of Denver, the Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellín, Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin), La Casa Encendida (Madrid), Museo CA2M (Madrid), and the Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid), among others.

About CCI

The Caribbean Cultural Institute (CCI) Fellowship program fosters art projects and research that advance cultural development and scholarship in the Caribbean and its diasporas. Through research and production-based art fellowships, the program cultivates new ideas that challenge traditional conceptions of Caribbean art, generates innovative study on the region, and reflects upon the contemporary state of Caribbean art and thought. The CCI Fellowship program is intended to support artists, cultural practitioners, and scholars from the Caribbean and the Caribbean diaspora whose projects would benefit from access to PAMM’s institutional resources.

About CCI + WOPHA Fellowship

The CCI + WOPHA Fellowship supports emerging to mid-career women and non-binary photographers based in Miami, the Caribbean, or its diasporas, whose projects would benefit from access to WOPHA and PAMM’s institutional resources.

About El Espacio 23

El Espacio 23 is a contemporary art space founded by collector and philanthropist Jorge M. Pérez. Located within a repurposed 28,000 square foot warehouse in Miami’s Allapattah neighborhood, El Espacio 23 serves artists, curators, and the general public with regular exhibitions, residencies, and a variety of special projects drawn from the Pérez Collection.