BAILE, BOTELLA Y BARAJA. Josè Ruìz entre la Botella y el Lienzo y su Narración Naïf de Puerto Rico.

Consolato REM Brega presents “Baile, Botella y Baraja – José Ruiz between the Bottle and the Canvas and his Naïf Narration of Puerto Rico”, an official Collateral Event of the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia (2026). Curated by REM Escobar, the exhibition features the work of Puerto Rican painter José Ruiz, whose practice spans more than six decades. Ruiz is presented as a historical narrator whose paintings serve as a visual archive of colonial and contemporary realities in Puerto Rico.

The exhibition explores themes of collective memory and cultural identity through a non-academic aesthetic. Key subjects include community gatherings, the role of women in resistance, and the impact of historical events such as the encomienda system and US sugar monocultures. The title refers to the 19th-century colonial strategy “baile, botella y baraja”, originally used for social control, which Ruiz reclaims as a form of counter-memory and resistance. In Venice, the presentation includes a multimedia installation that combines Ruiz’s canvases with Puerto Rican music, ranging from traditional bomba to contemporary perreo.