The Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) is proud to present Dueñas de la Noche: Trans Lives and Dreams in 1980s Caracas. The exhibition features Trans, a 1982 documentary by filmmakers Manuel Herreros de Lemos and Mateo Manaure Arilla that follows a group of Venezuelan trans women in early 1980s Caracas as they share their dreams and demonstrate their resilience against the backdrop of the city. Expanding on an exhibition produced through the 2023 ISLAA Artist Seminar Initiative at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (CCS Bard), Dueñas de la Noche marks the first time Trans is shown in New York City, providing an intimate look at these women’s experiences as sex workers, their aspirations, and their community.

When the film first premiered in 1982 at the Cinemateca Nacional de Venezuela, police attempted to arrest Herreros de Lemos, Manaure Arilla, and the twenty-five trans women film collaborators and subjects in attendance. After its premiere, the filmmakers encountered challenges in screening the film for decades, which made preserving and sharing the documentary precarious and dangerous. In 2022, ISLAA acquired four digital copies of the film to facilitate the study of this striking work and its complex historical context and to preserve the memory of these women. 

The film’s first US screening was part of the 2023 ISLAA Artist Seminar Initiative at CCS Bard, a program funded by ISLAA that offers graduate students a collaborative cocurating experience, as they studied the Herreros de Lemos and Manaure Arilla archival collection in the ISLAA Library and Archives. Working closely with ISLAA’s exhibition team, the curators expanded Dueñas de la Noche for the lower-level galleries at 142 Franklin. The film’s preservation and the Artist Seminar Initiative’s fostering of emerging curators are at the heart of ISLAA’s mission to support the study and visibility of Latin American art.

On view from September 7, 2024 to January 25, 2025, the show includes ephemera and photographs from the collection, including portraits of the film’s subjects taken in exchange for the women’s participation in the film. Accompanying the exhibition is an original booklet designed by Luiza Dale, ISLAA’s graphic designer in residence, which includes a text by the curators, an excerpted essay by scholar Marcia Ochoa, and an interview with Herreros de Lemos. 

Dueñas de la Noche is cocurated by Omar Farah, Lucas Ondak, Clara Prat-Gay, Andrew Suggs, Micaela Vindman, and Clara von Turkovich, with guidance from ISLAA Artist Seminar Initiative professor and curator Mariano López Seoane. This iteration was developed with the support of Bernardo Mosqueira, ISLAA chief curator; Olivia Casa, ISLAA curator and exhibition program manager; and Rebecca Miralrio, former ISLAA exhibition assistant.