Rauschenberg, ROCI, and Cuba's young lions

During the 1980s Robert Rauschenberg conceived of an art exhibition for which he would travel to different countries and collaboratively create work about the nations he visited. He called the project Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange, or ROCI. He proposed the project as an endeavor to promote peace and understanding by communicating "worldly" through art. This research is a case-study of the impact of ROCI at its seventh stop, Havana, Cuba. Following an introduction and a discussion on the mechanics of ROCI, the dissertation moves on to a critical analysis of the ROCI art. The purpose of such an analysis here is to expose the subjective nature of the work and explore how viewers engage with it differently.;The final chapter is an examination of the performance art of Aldo Damian Menendez and other Cuban artists, who I refer to as Cuba's Young Lions, that chose to engage with Rauschenberg at the opening reception in Havana. Menendez pointed out that Rauschenberg's effort was an act of what Menendez called "cultural colonization." The performance became an indicator that there exists in Cuba a post-colonial condition. Comments and interviews with Roberto Retamar, Antonio Eligio, and Menendez serve as evidence of this condition and its effect on the exchange. I argue that Menendez's performance, although powerful and appropriate, was also predictable. It was a reaction that Rauschenberg foresaw yet he followed through with his global project regardless. He had intended the project to exist above the problems and issues we face in transnational communication due to the post-colonial condition. Yet, because of the performances by Cuba's Young Lions we know that Rauschenberg failed in at least this particular facet of his project.