Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara
A los seres que no pude despedir con un beso. Ibae bayen tonu.

Foreign & Domestic, 24 Rutgers Street, New York

November 6 to November 14, 2026; 4 to 6pm daily

Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara presents a new participatory performance titled A los seres que no pude despedir con un beso. Ibae bayen tonu. Combining the Spanish phrase for “To those beings to whom I could not bid farewell with a kiss” with a Yoruba phrase used to honor and bless the deceased in Cuba’s syncretic Santería religion. The performance will last for 9 days, echoing Santería’s traditional period of observing the dead.

Members of the Cuban diaspora are invited to participate by reciting the title phrase and naming loved ones they could not accompany in their final days because of imprisonment, exile, political violence, or travel and migration restrictions. These separations are compounded by restrictions on leaving or reentering Cuba, immigration rules that can jeopardize a return to one’s country of residence, and the threat of persecution on the island. A los seres que no pude despedir con un beso expands on a voicemail Otero Alcántara recorded in prison, naming loved ones who died during his incarceration. Rooted in the experiences of Cuba and its diaspora, the work transforms the grief of an impossible farewell into a collective act of mourning, memory and resistance.

The performance will be recorded.