NEW YORK, NY.- Cuban artist Esterio Segura’s installation Goodbye My Love has been installed from March as part of Times Square Arts’ initiative to bring leading contemporary art in multiple forms to visitors of New York City’s Times Square. Goodbye My Love is installed in Anita’s Way, the pedestrian passageway connecting West 42nd Street with West 43rd Street between 6th Avenue and Broadway. This installation is presented with the Cuban Artists Fund and chashama, and is supported by Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
Esterio Segura is a pioneer of Cuban contemporary art. His installation, Goodbye My Love, is a hanging outdoor installation of 12 planes made of heart-shaped bodies that reference the love found in contemporary relationships that often requires people to be separated from each other.
Sherry Dobbin, Director of Public Art, Times Square Alliance, says, “Esterio’s work first engages the audience’s sense of joy of watching a flight path through Midtown, but then strikes a bittersweet chord of emotion as we equate our personal experiences to saying Goodbye.”
As a Cuban artist, Segura’s piece also resonates with those who sometimes must be separated from their families in order to leave their countries. As a public artwork, it engages the audience to revisit the work repeatedly from a place of celebration or remembrance. This project upholds ongoing commitments to assist the under-served artist community of Cuban-Americans and, working with Cuban Artists Fund, to further raise awareness within this audience. This work was part of the Havana Biennial in 2012, and its presence in Times Square gives visibility to this important emerging artist coming from an economically and politically challenged country.
Carlos Pomares, Executive Director, Cuban Artsts Fund, says, “We are pleased to once again work with the Times Square Alliance and chashama as our past collaborations have been incredible opportunities for our artists to enhance their visibility. Esterio’s work is first rate and we have no doubt New York will embrace his work.”
Anita Durst, Artistic Director of chashama, says, "chashama is very excited to present Goodbye My Love with Times Square Arts at Anita's Way, our stunning outdoor through-block performance space in the heart of Times Square. We are always looking for ways to re-energize and beautify underutilized spaces, and this innovative, endearing installation will be a visual treat to the community, while exposing the talent of Cuban artist Esterio Segura."
Artist Esterio Segura had this to say about his New York project: “Up until now the manifestations of this subject have been sad ones, even pessimistic, though artful, emphasizing the social and political repercussions of migration, banishment, and separation among others. In this case, Goodbye My Love uses these issues as well as memories to offer an optimist’s view pointing to the importance of good communication and the interaction of the cultures that have caused these circumstances. New York offers the added value of the enrichment of universal culture, or the globalization of cultures which has resulted from the intersection of civilizations"
