Cynthia Tobar:
We can’t be replaced/
Nosotres no podemos ser reemplazades

KODA House #404b on Colonels Row on Governors Island
September 30—November 12, 2022

 

This exhibition explores the meaningful impact local residents have as they resist increasing inequality and the economic divide imposed on their communities in North Brooklyn. It will fea­ture work pro­duced on-site by Cynthia Tobar during her KODA artist residency that center narratives from Latine immigrants and longtime Bushwick residents fighting against discrimination and displacement due to gentrification. We can't be replaced includes photographs and short video instal­la­tions that bring to the fore some of the core myths and ideologies about labor, self-determination, individualism, and the struggle to stay in the city.

Esta exposición explora el impacto significativo que tienen los residentes locales al resistir la creciente desigualdad y la división económica impuesta en sus comunidades en el norte de Brooklyn. Contará con obras producidas en el lugar por Cynthia Tobar durante su residencia artística en KODA que centran las narrativas de inmigrantes latinos y residentes de Bushwick desde hace mucho tiempo que luchan contra la discriminación y el desplazamiento debido a la gentrificación. No podemos ser reemplazados incluye fotografías y breves instalaciones de video que sacan a relucir algunos de los mitos e ideologías centrales sobre el trabajo, la autodeterminación, el individualismo y la lucha por permanecer en la ciudad.

 

Artist Bio

Cynthia Tobar is an interdisciplinary artist, oral historian, educator, and filmmaker based between the United States and Ecuador. Her socially engaged practice investigates migration, memory, feminist storytelling, oral history, and community archives as sites of knowledge production and social transformation. Working across documentary film, participatory art, public humanities, and collaborative research, she creates spaces where personal narratives become catalysts for dialogue, cultural preservation, and collective imagination. An NYC-born, first-generation Ecuadorian American, Cynthia's work bridges North and South America, centering Afro-Caribbean, Latine, immigrant, and working-class communities through decolonial and feminist methodologies. She conceptualizes oral history not only as a method of documentation but as a relational artistic practice that generates alternative histories through ethical listening, co-authorship, and collective care.

 

She is the founder and director of Mujeres Atrevidas, a feminist oral history initiative and international artist residency based in Quito, Ecuador. As Founder and Director, Cynthia oversees the residency's program design, institutional partnerships, artist selection, and community engagement, cultivating transnational artistic exchange through oral history, feminist archives, socially engaged art, and public dialogue.

 

Cynthia's work has been presented internationally at institutions including the Museum of the City of New York, The New School, Pratt Institute, Governors Island (KODA House), BRIC TV, Casa Arq (Cali, Colombia), and the Greek Consulate of New York. She continues to develop transnational artistic collaborations that connect artists, researchers, and communities through oral history, feminist archives, and public storytelling.

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Website: www.cynthiatobar.net

Twitter: @latona12